Even with injury, Cole Tucker highlights historic crop of Marauders All-Stars

Cole Tucker stood between second and third base at Pirate City on a random, ultimately meaningless spring training afternoon in Bradenton.

The shortstop peered into his dugout for a sign and saw it was his choice. For the first time, he decided to gamble.

He took his usual lead, his lanky 6-foot-3, 185-pound frame ready to carry him another 90 feet closer to home plate. As the pitcher made his move to the plate, Tucker made his to third.

“I finally got the cajones to do it,” Tucker said.

It was, Tucker said, the first time he stole third base. At any level. During any game.

“It was cool,” Tucker said. “I was like, ‘Oh, all right. I’m not going to die. I can do it.’”

It was the latest step in the evolving nature of the 20-year-old’s game — the sort of progress that has made him one of the top prospects in the Florida State League and the fifth-ranked prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. An injury will keep him out of Saturday’s FSL All-Star Game in Lakeland (he has been on the disabled list since June 4), but a breakthrough season at LECOM Park for the Marauders made Tucker one of a record nine All-Star selections for the club.

Even if he never again suits up for Bradenton — a call-up to Double A Altoona seemed inevitable, if not imminent, before his injury — Tucker will leave a lasting legacy with the Marauders, including team records, star play and a key role in the Class A Advanced club’s first league championship.

“He knew where he was going,” said Brandon Buck, who was Tucker’s head coach for four years at Mountain Pointe High School in Phoenix. He always had his sights set on the majors.

Tucker was blessed with both genes and circumstance in the Ahwatukee community of Phoenix. Jackie Tucker, Cole’s father, played baseball for Division II Florida Southern College in Lakeland before spending a year in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Erin Tucker, Cole’s mother, ran for the track and field team at Arizona.

In the Mountain Pointe community, these sort of athletic genes were far from uncommon. Buck could look up into the stands at any high school baseball game and see about a dozen people with major league ties in the stands. Tucker and his two brothers — he’s the middle of three — took hitting lessons from Chris Cron while he was the roving hitting instructor for the Diamondbacks. They’ve received pointers from Jay Bell, who was a two-time All-Star for Pittsburgh and Arizona.

“It was like a little utopia for baseball,” Buck said.

And the Tuckers took advantage. Aside from his height, Tucker isn’t a particularly imposing figure, but he set his sights on the majors from a young age and absorbed all the tutelage he could find. Tucker barely played as a freshman for the Pride, so he learned by riding the bench during a state championship season, and he learned from a team that shattered Arizona record books with an 87-homer season. Playing for talented offenses, he never got to show off his speed on the basepaths, so he delivered his production at the plate and in the field.

By the time Tucker was ready to leave Mountain Pointe, he was one of the most coveted high school players in the nation. The Pirates took him with the 24th overall selection during the first round of the 2014 draft.

Since then, Tucker has had the ups and downs expected out of a teenager trying to make it as a professional. He joined the Marauders near midseason last summer and batted .238 as the starting shortstop for the FSL champions. Before his injury this year, Tucker was batting .271 with a .779 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, which would rank as his best yet as a pro. With Tucker in the lineup, Bradenton raced to a commanding lead in the South division. However, they enter the All-Star break 2 1/2 games behind the Cardinals.

If the Marauders repeat as Florida State League champions, Tucker likely will not be there for the trophy celebration. His presence, however, will be felt as one of the six top-11 organizational prospects in Bradenton this summer.

“We’ve got a really good group of guys on and off the field,” Tucker said. “We know we have something special going here and we’ve got all these big names — which is fun and it’s sexy and it’s cool — but we try not to think about it too much, we just try to put our cleats on and go out and play every night and whatever shows up, shows up. The prospect rankings are cool and it’s there, and it is a thing — a lot of people put a lot of stock into it, but we as players just go out and play.”

This story was originally published June 16, 2017 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Even with injury, Cole Tucker highlights historic crop of Marauders All-Stars."