LOS ANGELES — Kyle Tucker choosing the Los Angeles Dodgers as his free-agent destination came with an added bonus suited to the four-time All-Star’s lowkey temperament. Signing for the highest average annual value in baseball history will always generate at least some sort of attention, but sharing a lineup with three different MVP winners and several multi-time All-Stars means there is only so much air to go around to each.
Tucker can blend in, which, by all accounts, he’s done in 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 told 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 particularly concerned about Tucker’s start to the season.
The two-time Silver Slugger winner has hit just .246 with a .659 OPS through the first 15 games of his four-year, $240 million deal with the reigning back-to-back World Series champions. Tucker’s struggles have compounded of late, including a series against the Texas Rangers where he went a combined 2-for-13.
The Dodgers have still jumped out to an 11-4 start behind baseball’s best offense in spite of Tucker being their least productive regular. While Tucker may not feel he’s trying too much to make a good first impression, that’s what the club is seeing.
“I think he’s probably trying a little bit hard,” hitting coach Aaron Bates told 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 looked beyond his batting line.
Tucker is striking out 23.9 percent of the time, up from the 14.7 percent he averaged a year ago with the Chicago Cubs and the 15.9 percent he’s averaged for his career. He’s chasing more pitches — he’s swung at 24.2 percent of pitches he’s seen outside of the zone, which would be his highest full-season mark since 2022. He’s making less contact, with that rate dropping from 82.1 percent in 2025 to 75 percent thus far in 2026.
He’s also just being more aggressive; his 53.6 percent swing rate would be the highest of his career. Tucker’s aggression has played out from the start of every at-bat. Only Colorado’s Ezequiel Tovar has swung at a higher percentage of first pitches (60.9 percent) than Tucker has (58.2), while only New York’s Juan Soto has seen a higher year-over-year jump in that metric so far.
An All-Star in 2025, Kyle Tucker has not looked the part so far in the 2026 season. (Harry How / Getty Images)
That is telling.
“He’s getting out of his zone, I see,” said manager 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 remains a small sample. A particularly patient week at the plate could course-correct his underlying numbers. A solid series against the Mets, who were among the finalists for Tucker in free agency, could restore his numbers to a more respectable figure.
Plus, this is not Tucker’s first time trying to settle in with a new club. Tucker got off to a torrid start with the Cubs at the start of 2025, producing a .935 OPS in the game’s first two months. He didn’t miss a beat after his trade from the Houston Astros while looking, Bates said, “like the best player in baseball.”
“Over the years, he’s got a track record, so he kind of goes up and down,” Bates said. “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 is still trying to get a feel. Largely, he said, he’s missing the pitches he should 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 said. “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 said, 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 little bit off, along with an approach that is more aggressive than usual, and it’s a recipe for what the Dodgers are seeing from Tucker right now.
“When you’re in a little bit of a rut, that’s what happens,” Bates said. “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 still trying to figure out Tucker as he gets comfortable in his new surroundings. That means learning quirks. Bates said Tucker is “more talkative than people said he would be,” while providing feedback as they work to dial things in for their newest 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.”
