SAN DIEGO -- Late Friday night, while the rest of the Los Angeles Dodgers' players were shuffling out of Petco Park's visiting clubhouse, Kyle Tucker was in the batting cage, taking extra swings and searching for what continues to elude him. The Dodgers had already crossed the midway point of their season, and Tucker carried a .700 OPS. He was three months into a four-year, $240 million contract and routinely hitting in the bottom half of the lineup.
"He's frustrated, certainly," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "But he hasn't run from the work."
Saturday offered a slight reprieve.
In the Dodgers' 15-3 thrashing of the San Diego Padres, Tucker contributed his fifth three-hit game this season. He lined singles to left field in the fourth and eighth innings and elevated a cutter for a homer during a nine-run sixth inning, but he also struck out twice. The home run, just his seventh this season, capped a nine-pitch at-bat against Padres righty Randy Vasquez, but, to Tucker, it shouldn't have come to that.
"Earlier in the count, if I put better swings on the ball, the at-bat probably would've been over at that point, rather than getting deeper into the count," Tucker said. "But you just have to keep going, keep grinding through the at-bat and try to make something happen."
The Dodgers are paying Tucker $55 million this season because they believe he can help them become the first National League team to win three consecutive World Series titles. Eighty-three games in, though, Tucker is slashing only .238/.334/.384. His .719 OPS ranks 100th among qualified hitters. He arrived as a five-tool star, but he has contributed 0.8 FanGraphs wins above replacement. He began the season as the Dodgers' No. 2 hitter in the lineup, sandwiched between Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts, but Saturday, he batted seventh.
"It's tough," Tucker said. "You just have to try and stay positive as much as you can. I mean, we played a game tonight, it was great, we're going to enjoy the win, but you've got another game tomorrow, and you got to move on to that. Anything that happened yesterday, you got to move on, do your best at that, move on to the next game, and try to improve and try to help your team win."
Even with Tucker struggling -- and key pitchers such as Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Edwin Diaz injured -- the Dodgers continue to win. Their 53-30 record and plus-150 run differential are both the best marks in the majors, giving Tucker the space to find himself.
Tucker, 29, made four All-Star teams, won two Silver Sluggers and took home a Gold Glove from 2021 to 2025, during which he accumulated 23.4 fWAR, 10th highest among position players. His lowest OPS entering July in that stretch was .811. Last year, it was .931. This year, it'll probably be at least 200 points below that.
"You hear the word 'grind' a lot," Roberts said, "but he's grinding."
Tucker's walk rate (12.3%) is still close to an elite level, even though it might be down from the past couple of years. But his strikeout rate (20.9%) is the second highest of his career, and he's chasing far more this year (25.3%) than last year (17.6%). The biggest problem, though, has been the quality of his contact. In recent years, few have been better than Tucker at meeting the baseball with the barrel of the bat. This year, though, he ranks in the bottom 25% in barrel percentage.
"It sucks sometimes," Tucker said when asked about staying positive, "but you can only do so much. I'm trying my best out there. I want to help our team win. I don't really necessarily care about my personal stats. As long as we're winning games and I'm able to contribute to that, that's all I can really try and do."