Kyle Tucker Thankful for New Experience Away From Dodgers

Kyle Tucker was back in the Los Angeles Dodgers lineup on Sunday afternoon after not playing since Feb. 28.

The 29-year-old temporarily left Camelback Ranch in order to be with his wife, Samantha, as she gave birth to the couple's first child.

"It's awesome," Tucker said on the SportsNet LA broadcast of becoming a father. "It was really fun and exciting to be there and experience that with both of our families there. We have a pretty good support group back home taking care of everyone right now.

"So theyr'e doing well. It's been a lot of fun. Only home for a few days, but glad I got some time."

Tucker added he received plenty of advice over the past several months and noted he's around several fathers in the Dodgers clubhouse, including Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy.

Tucker went 1-for-3 with a strikeout in the Dodgers' 11-7 loss to the Athletics. He's hit safely in consecutive Cactus League games after starting 0-for-4 in his first three contests with the Dodgers.

The four-time All-Star previously joked that he only needed to exceed last spring's abysmal stats of having just one hit in order to consider this year a success. In actuality he finished with three hits over 13 games.

He's now collected two hits in Dodgers Spring Training thus far.

Spotlight will be on Kyle Tucker

Aside from joining a team like th the Dodgers that already garners global attention, plenty of eyes will be on Tucker. Not just because of a negative narrative that formed regarding his passion for the sport, but also due to the domino effect in the Dodgers lineup.

Tucker joining the Dodgers is resulting in Mookie Betts being moved from batting second to third, and Freddie Freeman getting dropped to the cleanup spot.

Betts has not regularly hit third in a lineup at any point in his career. The bulk of his 66 career games (64 starts) in that spot came when Betts started 40 games and hit third for the Boston Red Sox in 2017.

Freeman has spent the overwhelming majority of his career hitting third in a lineup, whether with the Atlanta Braves or Dodgers. Freeman started 1,378 games when batting third, followed by 367 in the two-hole.

There is another drop-off but Freeman's third-most starts are as a cleanup hitter, in the form of 192 games. Included in that were 47 starts as the Dodgers' cleanup hitter last season. Freeman batted .283/.353/.478 with 12 doubles, seven home runs and 33 RBI in such games.

Meanwhile, Tucker hitting second gives the Dodgers a stack of left-handed hitters due to Shohei Ohtani remaining in the leadoff spot. They typically have avoided such lineup construction, but aren't concerned about doing so in 2026.

“Any time you can add a guy to your lineup that is arguably better against same-side pitching, there’s just really no holes in what he does offensively,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman recently said about Tucker.