Add The California Post on Google CINCINNATI –– With his already career-worst season reaching nightmarish new depths, Kyle Tucker was pulled aside recently by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
The topic of conversation: The $240 million outfielder’s playing time over the rest of the season.
Externally, of course, calls had been mounting for Tucker to be platooned, if not outright benched, as his numbers continued to plummet amid an ongoing second-half slump.
Internally, however, the Dodgers had decided to double down on their faith in this offseason’s marquee free-agent signing.
“I told him, I’m gonna ride or die with him,” Roberts shared this weekend.
“I did,” Roberts joked. “That was my young term phrase.”
On this day, Roberts had reason to laugh. The previous two games, Tucker had finally offered signs of life at the plate, posting back-to-back performances with three hits and a home run. Over the last week, Dodgers hitting coaches believed they had finally found a breakthrough with the left-handed slugger’s swing, one that (at least temporarily) cleaned up some mechanical flaws that had hampered him all year.
Alas, in Tucker’s 2026 campaign, no turnaround was ever going to be that simple.
Over the two games since, he has gone 0-for-8 again, including a strikeout with the bases loaded in the top of the ninth on Sunday. On the season, his numbers remain unthinkably disappointing, with a batting average of .226, an OPS of .692 and an almost negligible 0.3 mark in wins above replacement.
At this point, it is all adding up to a lost season for the 29-year-old, who is threatening to become one of the biggest free-agent flops in at least the sport’s recent high-priced history.
And yet, the Dodgers aren’t wavering from their commitment to keep playing the four-time All-Star, rolling the dice “talent level” and “proven track record,” as Roberts cited, by keeping him in the lineup for the long haul.
“I was prepared, the organization was prepared, to give him as much leash as we possibly could to work through some things, and I do think that now we’re starting to see the fruits,” Roberts said. “So I see no other reason why we would pivot from running him out there every day.”
The only caveat Roberts offered: “I guess, to that same point, until you can’t, right?”
Trying to identify the root cause of Tucker’s dismal season has been about as easy as discerning his emotions through his stoic and reserved facade.
The one thing everyone has agreed on: “It’s purely mechanical,” as co-hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc told the California Post recently. “His swing plane is pretty unique, but it’s just not working the way that it used to.”
The problem, as Tucker himself conceded last month, has been finding an answer or adjustment that works.
“I feel like I’ve tried just about everything,” he said. “And every time I feel like I’m turning a corner, I get hit with a roadblock.”
Tucker’s swing has always been atypical, both in the way he “lays the bat back” in his stance (which, according to fellow hitting coach Aaron Bates, leads to a longer path in which “his margin for error is a little smaller”) and how he strides through the ball (launching off his back foot with an almost Scottie Scheffler-esque follow-through).
When it’s all synced up, it makes him one of the most consistent hitters in the game; reminiscent to some evaluators of a modern-day Ted Williams.
“I think it’s a slippery slope,” Bates said.
Only now, the Dodgers are hoping they have found a way to potentially end the slide.
For much of the year, Bates said Tucker was struggling to replicate his old, inside-out swing path. Instead, he was “cutting down and across the ball,” preventing him from squaring up heaters or adjusting to off-speed pitches. According to MLB’s Statcast system, his rate of “barreled” balls has fallen almost in half as a result, from 10.8% last year (and 12.9% in 2024) to 6.3% this season.
Their initial attempt at a fix was having Tucker cycle through old drills and mental cues he had used in his career previously. Only this time, those old band-aids failed to make a difference, leaving a player who once always had offensive answers toiling with only growing mechanical questions.
Why that is still confounds the Dodgers. Theories have ranged from a slow adjustment to his new surroundings, to potential lingering side effects from the hand fracture he played through last season with the Chicago Cubs.
“It definitely seems like things kind of shifted after [that],” Van Scoyoc said, noting that Tucker also struggled down the stretch in 2025. “So it could be that, but it might not be. We don’t exactly know.”
What was clear was the need to try something different. Thus, there has been constant trial-and-error in Tucker’s elongated batting-cage sessions of late.
Last week, something finally clicked. As Bates described it, Tucker found comfort with the thought of a “no-roll swing” –– where instead of flipping his hands at the end of his follow-through, he keeps them more square to the big part of the field.
“Guys who throw right-handed but hit lefty, it’s something they struggle with sometimes, because the right side of their body is the dominant side,” Bates said, noting that the team has made similar adjustments with Tommy Edman, Alex Freeland and Dalton Rushing this season.
In Tucker’s case, the cue helped flatten his swing.
“He was missing pitches he thought he needed to get on top of,” Bates said, “and needed to think about swinging high instead of swinging down.” It has also kept his barrel in the zone longer, allowing him to re-adjust to off-speed offerings (one of his great strengths as a hitter for most of his career) while better squaring mistakes left over the plate (like the hanging inside sweeper he belted for a grand slam on Friday).
“There’s a lot more room for error hitting the ball, because you can hit it deep and go the other way or catch it out in front and pull it a little bit more,” Tucker explained. “Just trying to be consistent with that and be as long through the zone as possible.”
Whether it proves to be a genuine breakthrough, or just another false start in a season that’s never gotten going, the Dodgers are willing to keep taking the time to find out.
After all, while Tucker’s regular season is beyond salvaging, Van Scoyoc maintained that “he can find it in one swing and then go on a run.”
Thus, they will “ride or die” with him the rest of the way, despite the dismal struggles the last five months have wrought.
“I mean, the numbers probably are what they are, but we’ve got a lot of important games coming next month,” Tucker said, eyeing what he hopes will be validation in the playoffs. “That’s the most important thing … As long as you win the game and kind of contribute to that in some way, that’s all you can really try and do.”
Added Roberts: “If you perform at the right time, all is forgotten.”
