Dodgers Manager Has Theory for Kyle Tucker's Sudden Breakthrough

The sudden success of Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker happened overnight. Just ask his manager.

Manger Dave Roberts recently spoke on Tucker, who has failed to meet the enormous expectations placed on him during his first of a four-year, $240 million contract.

"I know that the hitting coach has kind of unlocked something with Kyle, and it's just good to see it translate that quickly," Roberts said. "Because most of the time, things like that take a while — you know, 15, 20, at-bats — but it kind of happened overnight with the results. So, really happy to see that.”

Tucker is hitting .230 this season and was starting to look like one of the worst contract signings of the offseason (if not the history of the franchise) heading into September. He was batting just .195 heading into the final month of the regular season as his place on the postseason roster was starting to come into question.

The past seven games, however, Tucker appears to look more like the four-time All-Star baseball fans are used to seeing. He is batting .318 with three home runs (including a grand slam) and seven RBIs. Perhaps most importantly, the Dodgers have gone 7-0 in that span.

The Marlins brought in a lefty to face Kyle Tucker with the bases loaded and two outs.

He hit a grand slam.

He's now 3-for-3 today and is a double away from the cycle.

He's heating up for the Dodgers. pic.twitter.com/s3DluoiYPd
— Noah Camras (@noahcamras) September 12, 2026

Roberts also credited the improvement to Tucker's mechanics, something he admitedly doesn't bring up often.

“I’m not a person who’s talking about mechanics too often,” Roberts said. “But I do think in this particular situation, he’s cleaned up his bat path, and he’s staying in the hitting zone a lot longer. Whereas before, breaking balls he wasn’t staying on, fastballs he was underneath. But I think right now he’s in a great spot mechanically, and I think now with the confidence that he has with this swing.”

In 2025, Tucker was one of the best in baseball in terms of plate discipline, chasing pitches outside the zone just 17.6% of the time (good for the 98th percentile in MLB) and drawing a walk 14.6% of his plate appearances (96th percentile).

Those two figures still keep up in 2026 as his chase percentage has declined, but is still in the 83rd percentile while his walk percentage is in the 87th percentile.

The problem, as Roberts alluded to, is in his bat path. He barreled 10.8% of his hits last season compared to doing so just 6.3% of the time. The amount of his offerings hit with the ideal launch angle in 2025 was good for the 80th percentile in baseball. It dropped to the 52nd on the Dodgers.

If Tucker keeps up this kind of production, it could prove vital in October and almost certainly salvage the many dreadful memories of his first season in LA.

Tucker isn't trying to get too high or too low, though.

“We got a lot of important games coming up next month,” Tucker said. “So just trying to finish up the season strong and just get to that point, try and win games … [when the] playoffs come around. All that really matters is getting the win. So it doesn't matter if you get a hit or not. As long as you win the game or kind of contribute in some way, that's all you can really try and do.”

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