The Chicago Cubs saw their season come to a close on Saturday night with a Game 5 elimination loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS after fighting back to tie the series with two wins at Wrigley Field.

While the pain of the season coming to a close — especially against a hated rival — is very much there, Chicago returned to relevance this season and made their way back to the biggest stages of the sport. They have many reasons why that was able to happen, but one of the top is a trade for Kyle Tucker that helped sparked the offense to an incredible first half.

Of course, when the Tucker trade went down, the Cubs made the deal with the knowledge he was only under contract for one year. After fans were begging to bring him back early in the season, that noise has quieted down and it feels like the writing is on the wall for what is going to happen here.

In his first comments after the loss, Tucker seemed to know very well that he is not going to be returning to Chicago.

Tucker was asked about the possibility of staying in the city of Chicago for the long haul, and he barely even left the door open to the possibility while seemingly even telling the fans and his teammates goodbye.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “Don’t know what the future is going to hold. If not, it’s been an honor playing with all these guys and wish everyone best of luck whether its playing next year or not with them.”

Though the slugger has been open about how much he loves the city, the organization and playing in Wrigley Field, he is understandably probably going to take the highest offer that comes his way. At this point in time, it would be a minor shock to see that offer come from the Cubs.

Understandably, a lot of Cubs fans are going to have a sour taste in their mouths with Tucker just based off the way he concluded the year. With injuries and inconsistency that slowed a once promising season, the 28-year-old struggled over the summer and into the playoffs.

That should not take away from the historic, MVP-like numbers he was putting up over the first couple of months to help Chicago establish not only the best offense in baseball, but also create enough distance in the standings to weather a late season swoon.

Slashing .266/.377/.464 on the year with 22 home runs and 73 RBI over 136 games with a bWAR of 4.5, Tucker did not have an incredible year from start to finish, but he was very good in what will likely be his lone season with the Cubs.

Simply put, this team would not have made the run they did into the postseason without what Tucker was able to do early, and fans in Chicago should be thankful for that.

That thank you seems bound, however, to come along with a goodbye as well though.