Kyle Tucker's awful start with the Dodgers reveals a player feeling the pressure

Kyle Tucker is still getting settled with the Los Angeles Dodgers. After becoming the nine-hundredth consecutive big-money free agent to sign with the two-time defending champs, it’s clear he feels the pressure to prove he belongs. He’s chasing more, striking out a lot more and just generally not being the hitter-you’d-build-on-a-lab-bench he was for most of his career in Houston and Chicago. But you, an erudite, plugged-in baseball fan, already knew that.

In a break from my usual shtick where I tell you why there is actually more evidence to suggest a player actually isn’t struggling or is actually worse than you think or is actually a lobster (you never know), there isn’t much data to suggest that Tucker isn’t struggling. He is, he knows it, his hitting coaches know it, it’s sort of just … a fact of life right now. But what does it all mean?

The Dodgers don't necessarily need peak Kyle Tucker right now

The Dodgers don’t need Tucker to be the 30-homer, 30 stolen-base, batting-.300 freakazoid they signed him to be. They just won the World Series with significantly worse than that, after all. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t worth the contract in a sport where there are no restrictions on how much you can pay a person (i.e., everyone is worth what their market will bear), and the Dodgers realistically need Tucker to be a solid two- or three-hole hitter to get on base behind Shohei Ohtani and let the middle of the order clean up. That’s the minimum.

Weirdly, despite his struggles, Tucker is doing one thing well: (queue the Brad Pitt clip) he gets on base. He’s not hitting at a league average clip, barely slugging at all and, most concerningly, not hitting the ball hard. He’s swinging more but squaring up the ball less, and is thus understandably striking out at his highest rate since 2019. But (queue the Brad Pitt clip again) he gets on base … at a league average rate … which relative to his hitting numbers is kind of impressive … because he walks. You get it.

Tucker is still walking a lot, but the Dodgers will need him to hit in big spots

Walks are a great play in baseball, and Tucker has been one of its great proponents. His ascendancy from really-hard-hitting prospect (we have those popping out of drawers these days who cares get in line) to a two-time Silver Slugger is arguably the story of his ability to take walks. His walk rate has basically been steadily improving since he entered the big leagues, owing to his elite eye and plate discipline combined with the ability to hit the ball a trillion miles per hour when he does pull the trigger on a pitch in the zone.

He was also the focal point of whatever offense he was a part of for most of his recent seasons, allowing teams to scheme around Tucker, walk him a bunch and not allow him to slug them into oblivion. That isn’t going to work in Los Angeles, as you can’t pitch around Tucker and Ohtani right in front of him. Teams are pitching to Tucker this season, and I will tell you for free that he will not be setting career highs in intentional walks. 

It’s a bit of a new situation, though, and Tucker will need time to adjust to this role where teams will be fine facing him when they don’t want to see Ohtani. The fact that nobody is pitching around him and he is still walking a lot is encouraging — but eventually, when there’s a man on second and third with two outs, and Ohtani is intentionally sent to first? The Dodgers will need Tucker to hit.

According to Tucker himself and Dodgers coaches, he may just be trying a bit too hard to get going and skipping out on some fundamentals that made him so good. But the Dodgers have been just fine without him. If anything, the Dodgers being the undisputed best team in baseball with an injured Mookie Betts and a slumping Tucker is a testament to how much of a Death Star they have become. If Tucker starts hitting, though? Lock S-foils in attack position.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow