{"id":757638,"date":"2026-07-21T13:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/757638\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T13:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:36:24","slug":"dodgers-news-kyle-tucker-mlb-trade-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/757638\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers news: Kyle Tucker, MLB trade rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">This past offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed another big name to a big-time contract, this of course being Kyle Tucker and his $60-million-a-year contract. But this one is one that has not worked out much at all, aside from for Tucker\u2019s bank account.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">His current .240 batting average is 30 points less than he typically has, and he\u2019s on pace to only hit 11 homers. He has so far only amassed a 0.9 WAR.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">While fans watch Tucker fail to deliver night after night, on what looks like a hugely failed contract, Bill Shaikin of the L.A.Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/dodgers\/story\/2026-07-20\/dodgers-kyle-tucker-could-find-redemption-in-october\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">argues<\/a> that this gamble hasn\u2019t really cost the Dodgers anything.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Because Tucker is just another big contract, all of the spotlight and heavy lifting doesn\u2019t fall on him. He has Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for that. But still, that leads one to think a player could thrive if the pressure to do so isn\u2019t as intense as for others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">Said Tucker: \u201cEveryone here is very talented. Everyone is here to help each other out. Everyone here just wants to get back to another World Series, and win it. So I\u2019m trying to do my part and just play baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The truth is, he could be terrible all season and a big hit or three in the playoffs would erase all of that. And for his part, Tucker is working on getting himself into a place where he\u2019s able to do that. Manager Dave Roberts feels that his at-bats have gotten better, even if the results are yet to come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">\u201cThe thing that I\u2019ve appreciated since Day 1 is, he hasn\u2019t run from his struggles,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cHe\u2019s owned it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Time will tell if Tucker gets to a place where he\u2019s contributing to his team\u2019s success. As for now, he is lucky he has a team and coaching staff that will carry him along until he does.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Two weeks out, the rumors are running rampant about the upcoming trade deadline. Katie Woo of The Athletic writes about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7457108\/2026\/07\/20\/dodgers-trade-deadline-plans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">what she\u2019s hearing<\/a> as far as the Dodgers front office goes. She states that multiple sources have said that injuries to both Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith will not impact how president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and Co go about making the team World Series ready.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Improving around the edges has been the calling card of the last few seasons for the Dodgers front office, and there\u2019s not much pointing to that thought process changing this season. The team will have players joining the club on or around the deadline, but those are their own that are injured and are working their way back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">It remains to be seen what the front office actually does by August 3rd, but one shouldn\u2019t get their hopes up about a Tarik Skubal or a catcher to fill in for Smith until he returns. But then again with this front office one just never knows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This past offseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed another big name to a big-time contract, this of course&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,38410,8505,4],"class_list":["post-757638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball","tag-dodgers-news-notes","tag-dodgers-links","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116958238038451999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}