CHICAGO — Kyle Tucker is making the third stop on his boos cruise.
After being acquired in a big offseason trade with the Houston Astros in December 2024, Kyle Tucker played just one season for the Chicago Cubs before leaving as a free agent. He was an All-Star in 2025 before injuries took their toll in the second half.
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But Cubs fans worked up enough feelings in that one season to boo him loudly every time he came to the plate during his first series back at Wrigley Field on Monday and Tuesday nights. Tucker was also booed in New York when the Dodgers played the Mets and in Toronto when they played the Blue Jays – two places that pursued him unsuccessfully as a free agent last winter before he signed a four-year, $240 million contract with the Dodgers.
“I don’t know,” Tucker said when asked if he understood why Cubs fans booed him. “I tried my hardest last year. I tried playing through a hand fracture and calf thing, just trying to get back to the playoffs for them and trying to do what I could to help out the team last year with them. Hit really well in the first half and second half didn’t go as great and kind of didn’t end up great at the end of the year. But I had a good run.”
The Dodgers are still waiting for Tucker to have a good run with them. He went into Tuesday batting .240 with a .709 OPS, both career-lows, and just nine home runs after averaging 27 per season over the previous five years.
But he did have two hits in Monday’s game and gained a measure of Wrigley revenge with a solo home run in his first at-bat on Tuesday then made a nice, tumbling catch in right field.
“Just working every single day, just trying to be consistent with my work and what I do in the cage and everything and trying to translate it out onto the field,” Tucker said, his standard response to questions about his disappointing season.
“I just try to move on to the next day if I have a bad game. If I have a good game, I try and just keep it going. So, I mean, I felt like I had good at-bats tonight and I’ll just try to continue that to tomorrow’s game.”
CATCHING UP
With Will Smith and Dalton Rushing both on the injured list now, the Dodgers changed out their catching corps on Tuesday. Acquired at the trade deadline on Monday, Ben Rortvedt and Hunter Feduccia replaced Eliezer Alfonzo Jr. (sent back to Triple-A) and Chuckie Robinson (designated for assignment).
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“I just think it’s great for us as far as the experience part,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You look at our pitching staff and we had to raise the floor on the catching … certainly with the expectation to get Will Smith back at some point too.”
Rortvedt got the start Tuesday, catching Tarik Skubal’s debut. It was Rortvedt’s first major-league start since Game 2 of the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. With Smith recovering from a fracture in his right hand, Rortvedt started 15 games down the stretch for the Dodgers last September plus both games of the Wild Card Series against the Cincinnati Reds and the first two games of the NLDS.
“I think it certainly helps him – knowing the coaches, Mark (Prior) and Danny (Lehmann), knowing a lot of his teammates, knowing how we think, the system on the game-planning,” Roberts said. “I think that makes it seamless.”
Roberts said Feduccia will get the start in the day game on Wednesday.
REHAB ROUNDUP
Right-hander Tyler Glasnow began his rehab assignment with Class-A Ontario on Tuesday afternoon, pitching two scoreless innings in his first game action since back spasms sidelined him in early May.
Glasnow gave up one hit, struck out one and didn’t walk any batters. He breezed through his two innings on just 16 pitches so he threw a third inning in the bullpen, according to Roberts.
Left-hander Blake Snell was scheduled to make his final rehab start with Triple-A Oklahoma City on Tuesday night. Snell is expected to go five innings and then rejoin the Dodgers’ starting rotation next week. He has been out since elbow surgery to remove loose bodies in May.
UP NEXT
Dodgers (LHP Eric Lauer, 6-5, 4.50 ERA) at Cubs (LHP Shota Imanaga, 7-9, 3.67 ERA), Wednesday, 11:20 a.m. PT, SportsNet LA, MLB Network, 570 AM
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