What Is Cole Tucker Salary: How Much Does Cole Tucker Make?

On Twitter, the Pirates announced that they had optioned seven players.



Outfielder Jason Martin and third base prospect Ke’Bryan Hayes are among them, as are relief pitchers Geoff Hartlieb, Sam Howard, Edgar Santana, and Yacksel Rios.

Cole Tucker
Cole Tucker

Cole Tucker, the shortstop, is the most famous name in the group. Before the league-wide lockout, the 23-year-old had been hitting well in spring training, posting a slash line of .296/.387/.667, which was far better than his .211/.266/.361 in the big leagues.



Tucker was a highly regarded prospect entering 2019, ranking 83rd on FanGraphs’ Top 100 Prospects list.

He had an up-and-down year after being called up and making his big-league debut on April 20th, only to be optioned and recalled twice more as the season progressed.

According to FanGraphs, he appeared in 56 games, earning a 61 wRC+ at the plate but balancing it out with decent enough defense at shortstop to break even in the WAR area with 0.0.

Baseball-Reference estimates his OPS+ and WAR to be 64 and 0.2, respectively.

Kevin Newman is the current shortstop in Pittsburgh, and he had a great season in 2019, with a wRC+ of 110 and 2.4 fWAR. Erik Gonzalez should be the backup, but JT Riddle may fill in at shortstop in a pinch.

Tucker’s best approach, according to Pittsburgh, is to get regular at-bats in AAA and force his way into the lineup.

How Much Does Cole Tucker Make?

Cole Tucker makes an annual salary of $715,000.