Dodgers’ Kyle Tucker says he’s not trying ‘to do too much’—but stats say otherwise
LOS ANGELES — There’s a specific kind of hush in a ballpark right after a swing that doesn’t look like the one you practiced. For Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers’ newest big-name signing, that moment has been showing up more often than he’d probably like early in the season.
Tucker’s free-agent move to the Los Angeles Dodgers was always going to come with attention. Signing for the highest average annual value in baseball history doesn’t exactly happen quietly. Still, he doesn’t seem wired to perform for the spotlight. He’s four-time All-Star lowkey in the clubhouse by accounts, and sharing a lineup with three different MVP winners and several multi-time All-Stars means there’s only so much air to go around.
“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.” That sounds simple enough, and for him, it probably is.
But the Dodgers are watching the numbers closely anyway. Through the first 15 games of his four-year, $240 million deal with the reigning back-to-back World Series champions, Tucker has hit .246 with a .659 OPS. It’s not just a rough start—it’s a rough stretch too, including a series against the Texas Rangers where he went a combined 2-for-13. Even so, Los Angeles has still jumped out to an 11-4 start behind baseball’s best offense, with Tucker currently the least productive regular in the mix.
The part Misryoum newsroom reporters can’t ignore is what Tucker looks like beyond the batting line. His strikeout rate sits at 23.9 percent, up from the 14.7 percent he averaged a year ago with the Chicago Cubs, and up from the 15.9 percent he’s averaged for his career. He’s also chasing more pitches—he’s swung at 24.2 percent of pitches outside the zone, which would be his highest full-season mark since 2022. Contact has dipped, too: his contact rate is down from 82.1 percent in 2025 to 75 percent so far in 2026. And the aggression is creeping higher; his 53.6 percent swing rate would be the highest of his career.
That aggression is showing up from the first pitch of the at-bat. Tucker is swinging at 58.2 percent of first pitches, while only Colorado’s Ezequiel Tovar has swung at a higher percentage of first pitches (60.9 percent) than Tucker has. Only New York’s Juan Soto has seen a higher year-over-year jump in that metric so far. Misryoum editorial desk notes manager Dave Roberts didn’t mince words after Tucker went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts in Sunday’s loss to the Rangers.
“He’s getting out of his zone, I see,” Roberts said. “And he’s not a guy that typically chases down below, but he’s chasing a lot more down below, for me.” Typically, Roberts added, when hitters chase, it’s because they’re trying to do too much—maybe not consciously, but in the moment.
Misryoum analysis indicates it may still be fixable. It’s a small sample—67 plate appearances—and sometimes a week of patience changes everything. A solid series against the Mets, who were among the finalists for Tucker in free agency, could restore his numbers to something more respectable. Plus, Tucker has done this before: he started the 2025 season with the Cubs hot, producing a .935 OPS in the game’s first two months. After his trade from the Houston Astros, he didn’t miss a beat; Bates described him as “like the best player in baseball.”
That track record is why Aaron Bates, the Dodgers’ hitting coach, isn’t panicking. “I think he’s probably trying a little bit hard,” Bates said. “He’s just getting settled in a little bit.” The idea is that when a player is trying to force it—maybe force hits—that’s when the approach can drift. Bates even framed it like a chicken-or-egg problem: timing, mechanics, approach… all of it can be connected.
Tucker, for his part, said he’s still getting a feel and missing pitches he believes he should hit. He talked about hard pitches down the middle, fouling them off, then ending up deeper in counts—ending up chasing after that, maybe feeling like he never should’ve gotten into the situation in the first place. His correction is staying through the baseball in his swing. The swing itself has been unorthodox for him for years, and when it’s slightly off plus an approach that’s more aggressive than usual, you can see the recipe for what the Dodgers are dealing with right now.
“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.” Maybe that’s all this is—him getting comfortable, learning quirks, talking more than expected, and figuring out how to be the same player every time. Or maybe—actually, we’ll see once he gets a few at-bats back in sync.
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