LOS ANGELES — October can be a powerful stain remover.
How much of a disappointing regular season can be washed away by a productive postseason – or just a key contribution at a pivotal moment?
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“Everything,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think we’ve seen it with Kiké (Hernandez). I think we’ve seen it with other guys … Chris Taylor has done it. We’re about winning championships, so I think the media, the fan base, if you perform at the right time, all is forgotten.”
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman agrees.
“Oh, for sure,” Friedman said. “Like if you said, Player X can have a down regular season as compared to his previous performance but a really good October – I couldn’t pick it across the board because then we wouldn’t get a bye. But with one-offs, I would absolutely take that.”
This is an expensive one-off. Neither Hernandez nor Taylor carried the weight of a four-year, $240 million contract before emerging as postseason heroes.
Kyle Tucker signed that contract with the Dodgers last winter with the second-highest annual average value in MLB history behind teammate Shohei Ohtani. Then he went out and had the worst season of his career. Across the board, his slash line of .233/.330/.385 and OPS of .715 were the lowest since he played just 22 major-league games with the Houston Astros in 2019. His home run total (17), RBIs (70) and total bases (208) were the lowest in his five full seasons in the majors.
It’s the kind of performance when tied to that salary that would have made Tucker the target of fan vitriol and constant negative coverage by the media in many other MLB cities. It’s the kind of mistake that has sunk front offices in the past. With the Dodgers, though, Tucker just receded into the background of another 100-win season.
“I don’t know,” Tucker said when asked if he realized how differently his season would have landed had he signed with another team. “If I signed somewhere else and had a great year, everything could have been a different situation so I don’t really think or worry about what could have been. I just worry about where I’m at.”
And Tucker maintains that $60 million price tag on his season never weighed on him.
“I just show up and try to do my job,” he said. “I don’t really think about what I’m getting paid or what anyone else is getting paid.
“I guess (he was subject to less scrutiny on the Dodgers’ star-filled roster). I just show up. I don’t worry about all the other stuff. I just show up and play for the Dodgers and try to win for us.”
With few exceptions, Tucker showed up with no outward signs of the struggle or disappointment he might have been experiencing over the course of a season that didn’t meet anyone’s expectations. His low-key nature left reporters probing for signs that Tucker was affected by his performance, turning post-game interviews into mental health checks filled with questions about how Tucker was handling the disappointment, what he felt was behind his dismal home-and-road splits, who he turned to for support or where he found signs of hope in the darkness of a sub-.230 batting average.
“I don’t know,” Tucker said, laughing at that suggestion and turning the questions back on the reporter. “‘I’m good. How are you doing?’”
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On the field, Tucker has been doing much better – a positive sign for a redemptive postseason as the team begins preparations for a best-of-five National League Division Series against Atlanta or Philadelphia that will begin Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
September was by far Tucker’s best month of his first season with the Dodgers. He hit .262 with an .889 OPS and six home runs.
“My recent play is more what I expected from myself,” said Tucker, crediting work with the hitting coaches to stabilize and improve his swing path for the September success.
“I just feel like my swing path and my approach and everything is in a really good spot. I just try to keep that going every single day and not really steer away from it. Whatever works works and try to keep doing it,” he said.
“Just trying to keep my swing path in the zone early and long. I’ve just been able to maintain that for awhile now. It’s just been hit and miss throughout the year and I wasn’t able to find something consistent that works.”
Before he discovered that and had his most productive month, there were questions about whether Tucker might be platooned or even benched during the postseason. In late August, Roberts said he addressed that speculation head on with Tucker, telling him “I’m going to ride or die” with you.
“He’s not much for reaction, so I think that he processed it. I think he was pleased,” Roberts said.
“It’s been fun to watch Kyle build some confidence (in September). … You can see him just freed up a little bit. He’s been working hard this whole year, and he’s been in it. And I give him a lot of credit for continuing to persevere and (I) expect the best of him to be at the end of the season.”
If that season ends with a World Series championship, Tucker expects that to be all anyone remembers about his first season as a Dodger.
“I mean, that’s why we play, to try and win a World Series,” he said. “Obviously the fan base expects that out of us. We expect that out of ourselves too.
“If you win a World Series no one cares. As long as you win the last game of the year, that’s all that matters.”
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