The Los Angeles Dodgers entered the 2026 season expecting Kyle Tucker to help anchor one of baseball’s most dangerous lineups.
The team signed the former Chicago Cubs outfielder to a massive free-agent contract to place him alongside longtime stars like Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani. But instead of that star-studded lineup bringing out the best in Tucker, the newcomer has spent much of the year trying to rediscover the form that made him one of the sport’s premier offensive players.
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Kyle Tucker Takes Step Back After Leaving Chicago Cubs
The disappointing start has become one of the more surprising storylines surrounding the defending World Series champions.
“Overall, though, Tucker’s performance has fallen short of the expectations that came with his four-year, $240 million contract,” Sonja Chen noted for MLB.com. “He has had some hot stretches mixed in, like when he hit .297 with a .910 OPS in the three weeks after he was dropped from the No. 2 spot in the lineup, but he has been unable to sustain his success.”
Chen also highlighted some underlying trends that demonstrate a step back for Tucker following last year.
“Tucker’s average exit velocity is 89 mph, down a tick from 90.1 mph in 2025,” Chen added. “He’s halved his barrel rate from 10.8% last year to 5.3% this year.”
Los Angeles Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts Offers 4-Word Defense Of Kyle Tucker
Those struggles recently prompted questions for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who offered a candid assessment of Tucker’s season while making it clear that he remains optimistic about the veteran slugger’s outlook.
“He’s working hard,” Roberts said, according to The Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett. “There’s a day where it looks like he’s back and feeling comfortable. Then a couple days where you look at him and it looks like he’s searching again. For me, you just hope he can find something that sticks.”
Roberts summarized his outlook on Tucker’s performance since leaving the Cubs with a simple four-word message that acknowledged the struggles.
“I wouldn’t say disappointed,” the manager added, per Plunkett.
That four-word takeaway does seem to reflect the frustration surrounding Tucker’s season so far, with Roberts feeling a need to acknowledge that there is room for disappointment. While the Dodgers have remained among the National League’s elite teams, they have yet to consistently receive the middle-of-the-order production they expected when they committed significant money to the former Cubs star.
For Tucker, the challenge now is turning brief flashes of success into sustained production over the final months of the season. Roberts’ comments suggest the organization still believes that breakthrough is coming, but they also acknowledged that the search for consistency has lasted much longer than anyone anticipated.