Preston Tucker played for the Astros in 2015 when they surprised a lot of people by moving from rebuilding to contender sooner than most expected.
Now he’s with the Braves, and Tucker doesn’t have to look far to see similarities.
The Braves, after three consecutive seasons of at least 90 losses, were 18-11 and in first place entering Thursday’s series finale against the Mets. The two youngest position players in the majors, Ozzie Albies and recently arrived wunderkind Ronald Acuna, were playing big roles.
It reminded Tucker of the Astros when Tucker made his debut May 7, 2015, shortly before the debut of top pitching prospect Lance McCullers and the arrival of shortstop Carlos Correa, who was then the No. 3 prospect in baseball.
Dallas Keuchel won 20 games and a Cy Young Award that year for Houston in his third full season and 25-year-old Astros second baseman Jose Altuve led the American League in hits and stolen bases.
“A couple of weeks after I came up, McCullers came up, and a couple weeks after that Correa came up,” Tucker said. “And obviously with guys like Altuve and Keuchel already there, it’s very similar (to the Braves’ current situation). It was a lot of talent.
“The guys that we have right now who are producing for us are actually younger than what I saw when I was (at Houston). And all of a sudden when no one expected it we were in first place in 2015, made the playoffs and just kept building from there.
“So there’s a lot of similarities, and if we keep doing what we’re doing, I feel like it’s going to have a similar outcome.”
The Braves had a four-game winning streak before Thursday to move their winning percentage to .621, fifth-best in baseball. They won the first two games of the series to overtake New York for first place in the National League East by a half-game entering Thursday’s finale.
“I won’t say we expected it, but we expected to play well,” Braves veteran slugger Freddie Freeman said after Wednesday’s 7-0 win. “And we’ve played well pretty much the whole season. We’re just going to continue to go out there and play the game the right way. We’ve been grinding away professional at-bats all the way through, and winning games is not a surprise to us, to anybody in this clubhouse.”
Tucker has seen it up close, been there in a major league clubhouse and experienced the positive vibe and wave of optimism that can roll through a team that’s received a jolt of energy from young talent. Things can turn quickly for an organization in these situations.
“Absolutely,” he said. “That’s what’s big is bringing the guys up when they’re ready. So far, from what we’ve seen with Acuna and (pitcher Mike) Soroka (who pitched brilliantly to win his debut Tuesday). The front office did a good job with that, waiting until they thought they could help at the big-league level and play to their potential. Obviously it’s showing and we’re winning a lot of games as a result. ...
“Albies is a really special player, he’s going to be special for a long time. Just the way he attacks every pitch. He’s a five-tool guy.”
