I can’t help but recognize the irony that Edwin Díaz is on the IL with neck inflammation. It was very likely caused by the whiplash he’s endured by tracking all of those line drives whizzing past his ear.
Ron Yukelson San Luis Obispo
Regardless of whether Edwin Díaz ever excels again in his closer role, I wonder if anyone else feels like I do about the trumpets and light show hoopla announcing his entrance from the bullpen? I think not only does it add fuel to an already fired-up visiting team, it also is a slap in the face of the other Dodger relievers, who by the way, all currently have performed far better.
Gary Sohl Fountain Valley
Edwin Díaz is auditioning for a spot on the postseason roster and the audition is not going well.
Richard Sherman Margate, Fla.
Kyle Tucker’s sub-.240 batting average and the oft-injured Edwin Díaz cost the Dodgers $83 million this year — more than the entire payrolls of the Marlins and Guardians. No wonder so many fans believe the Dodgers are ruining MLB.
Barry P. Resnick Orange
If Dodgers’ ownership is found to have circumvented the rules, there should be serious consequences. Voiding the fat contracts of Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz — and making them immediate free agents — would send a strong message from the commissioner’s office that such conduct will not be tolerated.
It’s as though Kyle Tucker accidentally became important at work and it ruined his life.
He just so happened to be the best available right fielder on the free agent market at the moment in time that the Dodgers were craving an uptick in right field and another functional bat to further fortify their lineup.
Basically, they wanted just another cog in the machine to help clear a path to a third consecutive World Series championship.
And because money is no object — to the objection of the rest of baseball — instead of offering Tucker a long-term deal with annual pay more in line with his talents, the Dodgers slapped a four-year, $240-million deal on the table.
Dodger Kyle Tucker talks with manager Dave Roberts in the dugout on Aug. 15.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Said, essentially: Hey, guy, how would you like a Major League Baseball record for average annual value — about $57.1 million per year — not to be the man, but to be a guy?
Not to outshine Shohei Ohtani and his starry pals, not to move merch off the field or do huge numbers on it. Just to quietly do what he did the previous season as a Chicago Cub, when he slashed .266/.377/.464 with 22 home runs, 73 RBIs and 25 stolen bases in 136 games.
It must have felt like winning the lottery. All the introverted Tucker had to do was be his normal self with the understanding that no one expected him to live up to that Ohtani-type contract, that Juan Soto-esque dough, that Aaron Judge-level cheddar.
It wasn’t that too much was expected of Tucker, it was that only so much was.
That was a weird place to start. And it obviously didn’t help him find his footing as a Dodger, because he still hasn’t gained traction.
“I mean, it’s been a struggle in the sense that I’d like to help our team win and perform better for the guys in the clubhouse and the fans that come to the games,” Tucker said Friday. “In that aspect, I wish I would’ve done better this year. But like I said, we’ve still got a month and a half left and the playoffs coming up, so it’s not over yet.”
We can’t, of course, say “poor Kyle Tucker” as he strains — less stoically now — to figure it out with the postseason closing in.
But we can wonder if it was a poor decision by the Dodgers, with all of their top-flight minor league outfield prospects, to splurge so steeply?
We can ask whether they should have taken into account the mental makeup of a man who they were asking to carry the weight of a contract so unwieldy he should be embarrassed by it — which is how Tucker looks when he does his inhibited version of the hip-lock, arm wiggle-and-wave dance moves all the Dodgers do when they reach base.
Tucker just hasn’t looked like a true blue Dodger yet; he hasn’t been able to cut loose — especially not here in L.A.
Brandon Gomes, Dodgers executive president and general manager, helps new signee Kyle Tucker put on a Dodgers jersey during a news conference at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 21.
(Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times)
After going 0-for-4 in Friday’s 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tucker is hitting .186 with a .552 OPS at Dodger Stadium. He went 0-for-19 in the Dodgers’ last homestand, when even a game off did nothing to unscramble his mind.
Overall, he’s had it rough in the outfield too, where Statcast’s Fielding Run Value (FRV) measuring a player’s overall defensive value has him rated 96th of 97 right fielders this season.
At present, it doesn’t help that Tucker is one of two high-profile Dodger free-agent busts-so-far.
All-Star closer Edwin Díaz has blown four saves while saving just seven games this season in between stints on the injured list — Tucker and Díaz, insult to injury. For the high-high price of a combined $309 million.
Still, the Dodgers are 78-51. They have the second-best record in baseball, with two fewer wins than the Milwaukee Brewers.
And on the road, Tucker has given the Dodgers more of their money’s worth, hitting.272 with a .820 OPS.
So after Wednesday’s two-hit game to close out a sweep in Colorado on Wednesday, Tucker came home and tried the slump-busting tactic of taking batting practice outside on the field Friday for the first as a Dodger.
“Just trying to put up good swings tonight, good at-bats,” he said. “Just trying to move guys over, get guys in, do my part to try to win.”
The crowd participated too Friday, giving Tucker ovations more befitting a hitter on a heater than one on ice each time he stepped to the plate, where he put up a fight all night.
He saw 31 pitches, walked and hit into a 10th-inning fielder’s choice that moved Kiké Hernández to third base before he scored on Tommy Edman’s walk-off single.
Moral victories for $240 million, Alex? That’s not what the Dodgers bargained for.
But they’ll take it.
“I loved his at-bats,” said Roberts after Friday’s victory, picking up where the Dodgers’ crowd left off. “That’s one of the things I’m going to make sure I do, is encourage him.”
Because one magic moment in October will make it all worth it.
DENVER — Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called right fielder Kyle Tucker into the visiting manager’s office at Chase Field a week and a half ago, just to catch up.
Roberts had run into Tucker’s wife Samantha and their 5-month old baby that morning in Arizona. And he saw it as a good time to check in.
“When you start to struggle and you internalize … you find yourself going dark, and that’s a lonely place,” Roberts said Tuesday, before the Dodgers’ 7-6 win against the Rockies. “So I think that for me, trying to proactively pull conversations out of him, talk about life, talk about baseball, it just kind of opens things up, and I think that it’s freeing.
“He’s a cerebral guy by nature, internalizes a lot. But still, for me, he’s with a new ballclub, he’s scuffling, so I want to get that out of him.”
Scuffling is a mild way of describing Tucker’s struggles this season. He described it as the “first time in [his] life” that he’s had a season with so many offensive false starts. After being named an All-Star in each of his previous four seasons, Tucker is on pace for the worst offensive year since his 2018 debut season with the Astros.
On Tuesday, he finally ended his career-high hitless streak at seven games, with a double up the right-field line in the fourth inning (although he grounded out once and struck out twice in his other plate appearances). He’d gone 26 straight at-bats without a hit.
So much about Tucker’s year has been head-scratching.
Take his plate discipline, for example. Traditionally known for his strike-zone control, Tucker’s chase rate has been up this season. But even when he trimmed it to 21.6% in July (not as low as the last two years but even with his 2023 season), his production at the plate didn’t respond accordingly.
One of the biggest mysteries has been his extreme home/road splits. Entering Tuesday, he had a solid .822 OPS on the road and a paltry .558 OPS at Dodger Stadium.
Asked about the contrast earlier this week, he said he didn’t have a theory.
“If I knew, I’d probably have figured it out by now,” he said. “But that’s just kind of how it’s gone.”
Recently, his woes have followed him into the outfield. The day after he failed to reel in a flyball in the right-field corner at Dodger Stadium, he had a far worse drop Monday at Coors Field.
In the seventh inning of the Dodgers’ 11-5 victory against the Rockies, Tucker seemed to camp right under a shallow fly. But as it fell, he twisted and put one knee down before dropping the ball.
“There’s indecision, and catching a baseball at your ankles kind of speaks to where his head is at right now,” Roberts said. “It’s not from lack of effort, or care. It’s just right now, I think he’s kind of fighting. So we’ve got to keep supporting him.”
Tucker isn’t the only player who’s struggling. Mookie Betts has been hot and cold at the plate. Teoscar Hernández hasn’t been slugging the way he’s accustomed to. And before arriving in Colorado, the team was in a collective slump.
Tucker, however, is in the first year of a four-year, $240-million contract. And so far the Dodgers haven’t seen the version of him that elevated the Cubs’ offense in the first half of last year and was a steady part of the Astros’ lineup during a run of sustained success.
“Whether it’s my first year or 10th year with a team, I think it’d be frustrating regardless,” Tucker said. “But it’s not like I’m frustrated just because I’m playing at home or anything. Whether it’s on the road or at home, it would be frustrating, just not helping the team win games.”
He slid into his most recent slump during the Dodgers’ last homestand, but the Colorado altitude didn’t immediately work its magic when the team went back on the road.
During Monday’s SNLA broadcast, analyst Eric Karros suggested sending Tucker to Arizona for a reset.
The less extreme version would be sitting Tucker for several games in a row.
“I’m not at the point where it’s like a three-day, three-game reset situation, something like that,” Roberts said Tuesday afternoon.
He did, however, give Tucker a day off Saturday, saying he saw Tucker’s frustration as he continued to struggle offensively at Dodger Stadium. And Tuesday, he said he hadn’t decided whether to start Tucker against Rockies left-handed starter Kyle Freeland the next day.
“It’s tough because, I mean, I feel like I’ve tried just about everything,” Tucker said. “And every time I feel like I’m turning a corner, I get hit with a roadblock. But, you can’t stop. You just got to keep going, try and at least pick out the positives, and just try and ride with that. Just keep on moving to the next day and hope for something to build.”
Despite signing a contract extension in November 2024, the series reveals how close Guardiola came to not renewing his deal.
In one scene, the manager reveals to director Kevin Macdonald that, after losing four games in a row in 2024, he told the club: “Maybe it’s over.”
In a separate scene, City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak says that he was not sure he was going to be able to convince the legendary manager to stay at the club.
“You know the boy that cried wolf? He is the boy that cried wolf,” the Emirati said.
“I always convince him, but last year, I knew, this time he actually saw the wolf.”
Amid that, Guardiola’s personal life was in turmoil as he went through a divorce and there was media speculation about his mental state when the 55-year-old appeared with multiple scratches on his head and nose following a disappointing 3-3 Champions League draw with Feyenoord in November 2024.
While the coach does not admit to the idea that his personal struggles affected his ability to do his job, Manel Estiarte, a long-time member of Guardiola’s technical staff, speaks about how he had to address players who were worried by their manager’s behaviour.
“They were worried because Pep was anxious,” he says.
“He was sad. He was different. And only I knew the reason.
“And I said to the team, ‘please, you have to understand, you’re not playing with a coach who can be a bit impulsive, who can be a bit intense, who can be sometimes up and down. You’re seeing a human being. He’s getting a divorce’.”
Alongside scenes where Guardiola obsesses over tactics, there are many where he gives candid speeches and berates his team.
Following a defeat by Bayer Leverkusen in November 2025, he tells his squad: “I work for you and I leave my life, my divorce and my family is away and everything for all of you. And what do you give back?
“The performance you have done, all of you. It’s a disgrace guys.
“When I see that, I am exhausted, I’m drained, I want to quit. When you play like this, I feel alone.”
In some scenes, the Spaniard warns his team that they will “get a new manager” if performances do not improve.
In others, he speaks about using a knife to get into their hearts and insists on his squad hugging one another and himself before matches, even blaming poor performances on lukewarm goal celebrations.
Guardiola stepped down as City manager at the end of the 25-26 campaign after 10 years at the Etihad, during which time he won 20 trophies, including both the FA Cup and League Cup in his final season.
Speaking about his next steps, he says: “I don’t know even myself what I am going to do,” adding: “It will be difficult to come back. That’s my feeling today. I need to refresh many things that happened in my personal life.”
