LOS ANGELES — Kyle Tucker selecting the Los Angeles Dodgers as his free-agent vacation spot got here with an added bonus suited to the four-time All-Star’s lowkey temperament. Signing for the best common annual worth in baseball historical past will at all times generate at the very least some kind of consideration, however sharing a lineup with three totally different MVP winners and a number of other multi-time All-Stars means there may be solely a lot air to go round to every.
Tucker can mix in, which, by all accounts, he’s executed within the Dodgers’ star-studded clubhouse. Not that Tucker is all that hyper-focused on maximizing his first impression anyway.
“I don’t try to do too much or try and do certain things,” Tucker instructed The Athletic on Monday afternoon. “I just try and be the same player every single time. Sometimes you have good games, sometimes you don’t.”
The Dodgers are not notably involved about Tucker’s begin to the season.
The two-time Silver Slugger winner has hit simply .246 with a .659 OPS by way of the primary 15 video games of his four-year, $240 million take care of the reigning back-to-back World Series champions. Tucker’s struggles have compounded of late, together with a sequence in opposition to the Texas Rangers the place he went a mixed 2-for-13.
The Dodgers have nonetheless jumped out to an 11-4 begin behind baseball’s greatest offense regardless of Tucker being their least productive common. While Tucker might not really feel he’s trying too a lot to make a very good first impression, that’s what the membership is seeing.
“I think he’s probably trying a little bit hard,” hitting coach Aaron Bates instructed The Athletic. “He’s just getting settled in a little bit. Everyone’s always trying hard, so I don’t want to say it that way, but it’s more so (that he’s) trying to force it, maybe force hits.”
What’s most telling after 67 plate appearances is how un-Tucker-like he has appeared past his batting line.
Tucker is placing out 23.9 % of the time, up from the 14.7 % he averaged a yr in the past with the Chicago Cubs and the 15.9 % he’s averaged for his profession. He’s chasing extra pitches — he’s swung at 24.2 % of pitches he’s seen exterior of the zone, which might be his highest full-season mark since 2022. He’s making much less contact, with that charge dropping from 82.1 % in 2025 to 75 % up to now in 2026.
He’s additionally simply being extra aggressive; his 53.6 % swing charge could be the best of his profession. Tucker’s aggression has performed out from the beginning of each at-bat. Only Colorado’s Ezequiel Tovar has swung at a better proportion of first pitches (60.9 %) than Tucker has (58.2), whereas solely New York’s Juan Soto has seen a better year-over-year bounce in that metric to date.
An All-Star in 2025, Kyle Tucker has not appeared the half to date within the 2026 season. (Harry How / Getty Images)
That is telling.
“He’s getting out of his zone, I see,” stated supervisor Dave Roberts after Tucker went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts in Sunday’s loss to the Rangers. “And he’s not a guy that typically chases down below, but he’s chasing a lot more down below, for me.
“Typically when guys chase, they’re trying to do a little bit too much.”
It stays a small pattern. A very affected person week on the plate may course-correct his underlying numbers. A stable sequence in opposition to the Mets, who had been among the many finalists for Tucker in free company, may restore his numbers to a extra respectable determine.
Plus, that is not Tucker’s first time trying to settle in with a brand new membership. Tucker acquired off to a torrid begin with the Cubs in the beginning of 2025, producing a .935 OPS within the recreation’s first two months. He didn’t miss a beat after his commerce from the Houston Astros whereas wanting, Bates stated, “like the best player in baseball.”
“Over the years, he’s got a track record, so he kind of goes up and down,” Bates stated. “His routine is the same, he doesn’t change much as far as that goes. He’s meticulous about what he does. So it’s one of those things where you don’t want to overreact to something too soon, or you want to just kind of be there to support him.”
Tucker remains to be trying to get a really feel. Largely, he stated, he’s lacking the pitches he ought to hit.
“If you get a hard pitch down the middle that you feel like you should have hit and your at-bat’s already over with and you end up fouling it off, which happens at times throughout the year,” Tucker stated. “If it happens repeatedly, you just get into the count a little deeper in the at-bat.
“(If) I end up chasing, I probably felt like I should’ve never been in that position anyways.”
Correcting that, Tucker stated, means “staying through” the baseball in his swing. Tucker has made an unorthodox swing work for him for years. Combine that swing being just a bit bit off, together with an strategy that’s extra aggressive than traditional, and it’s a recipe for what the Dodgers are seeing from Tucker proper now.
“When you’re in a little bit of a rut, that’s what happens,” Bates stated. “It could be timing. It could be mechanical. It could be your approach. Then your approach can fix a physical mechanic sometimes, too. So it’s kind of like the chicken or the egg.”
The Dodgers are nonetheless trying to determine Tucker as he will get snug in his new environment. That means studying quirks. Bates stated Tucker is “more talkative than people said he would be,” whereas offering suggestions as they work to dial issues in for his or her latest star.
“We’re just letting him get settled in and come to grips with that and not try to do too much at the plate. That’s the biggest thing.”
