Houston Astros right fielder Kyle Tucker is living the dream.
One of the top up-and-coming sluggers in the American League, he also happens to be a great fielder.
Above all things, however, he is a proven winner.
Together with his talented teammates, Tucker won the 2022 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies just a few days ago.
In fact, he caught the final out: a foul ball to right field in which he had to show his range, running to his left to cover a lot of ground before the ball reached the ground.
Plays like that one secured him the Gold Glove award in right field this season.
In this picture, uploaded by Rawlings Baseball (the company in charge of handing out the Gold Glove awards), Tucker is shown with a smile on his face and proudly showing his trophy.
The Smile Of A Happy Man
“World Series winner. Gold Glove winner. Pretty nice year for Kyle Tucker,” they tweeted.
World Series winner. Gold Glove winner. Pretty nice year for Kyle Tucker #RawlingsGoldGloveAwards pic.twitter.com/KXKgyt3PIk
— Rawlings Baseball (@RawlingsSports) November 11, 2022
It was, in fact, an excellent year for the lefty-hitting slugger.
In 609 plate appearances in 2022, he homered 30 times and hit .257/.330/.478 with a 129 wRC+ (29 percent better than the league average production) and 4.7 Wins Above Replacement, or WAR.
He isn’t as popular as Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez or Justin Verlander, but he was just as important as them for the Astros in 2022.
Tucker is what you would call a five-tool player: he can hit for contact, has solid power (he had exactly 30 home runs in each of the last two seasons), he has speed (25 stolen bases in the campaign that just ended) and as his Gold Glove may suggest, he is a terrific defensive player.
What a year for him.
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