The East side of Great American Ballpark’s visiting clubhouse turned into a personal hype group for Cubs outfielder Mike Tauchman as reporters swarmed toward his locker. 

Tauchman’s nearby teammates called out nicknames and over-the-top support. Patrick Wisdom, the initiator, stated his goal: to get Tauchman flustered.

“I’m unflusterable,” Tauchman called back.

It was a comeback delivered with a half smile. But it rang true.

Less than two years ago, Tauchman accepted that he might never play in Major League Baseball again. The Cubs’ 11-8 win against the Giants on Tuesday was his 87th MLB game of the season. His emergence helped the Cubs turn around their offense in June, and he’s been a regular contributor since.

“His mental focus is probably what I see the most, of just trusting in his game,” manager David Ross said. “His routine is professional, he carries himself very professional, his baseball IQs high. But his path probably created a sense of, he’s locked in when it’s time to play, he doesn’t take for granted an at-bat, doesn’t take for granted a day.”

In the winter leading up to last season, Tauchman had a career-changing decision to make. The MLB lockout had just started, and he had an offer from the Hanwha Eagles of the Korean Baseball Organization.

He had never been to South Korea. He didn’t speak the language. It was a 10-month commitment. 

“There was a conversation of, ‘If we choose to go down this path, there might not be another big-league opportunity here,’” he said. “Which I was at peace with.” 

He weighed the financial flexibility it would give him and his family  – “It was the most money I’d ever be able to make, it was guaranteed” – and the uncertainty of the MLB season on the other side of the lockout.

“And it also just kind of seemed like it could be quite the adventure,” he said.

He and his wife Eileen chose the adventure. 

Tauchman had talked to others who had experienced the KBO to learn what to expect. But there were some things he could only fully appreciate while playing in a tight-knit 10-team league in its 40th year . 

“I got some good advice in terms of, there’s going to be things that just are going to drive you crazy because you’re not used to it,” he said. “… So you have to sort of embrace it.”

For example, because the KBO is a younger league, it hasn’t gone through the same analytics revolution that MLB has. But the KBO is also where Tauchman got back to felling like himself at the plate. 

“Some of the mental and physical things that I went through [the previous year and a half], I felt like I lost a little bit of my identity as a player,” he said. 

He hit .181 in 2021, beginning the year with the Yankees but traded to the Giants less than a month into the season. He spent time on the IL with a knee sprain. And in August, the Giants outrighted him to Triple-A.

In the KBO, Tauchman was an everyday player, which he said “cleansed some of the bad vibes from the last couple of years.” 

“When you’re over there, it’s sort of just you to figure things out,” he said. “So in some ways, it helped me reset and get back to basics and learn to trust myself.”

After the 2022 season, Tauchman thought he was going back to South Korea for a second year, up until about a week and a half before Christmas. He was frustrated with the way negotiations were going. And he aired some of those frustrations to Cubs director of hitting Justin Stone, who had been Tauchman’s hitting coach long before joining the Cubs.

The Cubs, after learning Tauchman was looking at his options, offered him a minor-league deal with an invitation to Spring Training. The Cubs’ Triple-A team played not that far from his hometown of Palatine.

“This would be easier for my family,” he said, “there would be easier travel, that was something that was really, really appealing to us.”

He also still thought he could add value to a major-league team. And he hadn’t ever played at Wrigley Field. 

Said Tauchman: “So I thought, ‘That would be cool to just even do it once.”