Dodgers drop slumping Kyle Tucker down in batting order: ‘Just not comfortable’

SAN FRANCISCO –– Four weeks into the season, Kyle Tucker still seems to be “just not comfortable” in his debut Dodgers season, manager Dave Roberts said Thursday.

So, in his first significant lineup shuffle of the season, Roberts decided to change things up, flipping Tucker with Freddie Freeman in the Nos. 2 and 4 spots in the batting order ahead of the team’s series finale against the Giants at Oracle Park.

“I think it’s more of just trying to give Kyle a different look,” Roberts said, explaining why he hopes a move to the cleanup spot will benefit the club’s $240 million offseason signing. 

“I think that he’s obviously going through it right now and not feeling great at the plate. So sometimes, the different visual, letting the game come to you a little bit before jumping in there in the two [hole] changes your outlook and potentially the results. So that’s kind of the thought.”

The switch came after Tucker went hitless in back-to-back games to start this week’s series in San Francisco, dropping his opening-month batting average to .233 and OPS to .676.

Roberts said he would stick with the new lineup arrangement for the “foreseeable future.”

“I just went to him last night and had a quick conversation,” Roberts said. “Just told him my thoughts, and he was agreeable.”

Tucker, a four-time All-Star who joined the Dodgers as a blockbuster signing as the top hitter in free agency this offseason, hasn’t looked right for any prolonged stretch since the regular season began.

He is striking out at a 23.3% clip, close to double his 14.7% mark with the Cubs last year. He is also swinging more, chasing more and whiffing more. Especially notable has been his first-pitch swing percentage, which has skyrocketed from 36.3% last year to 51.5% this year.

“I do feel he’s trying to do too much,” Roberts said, reiterating a factor that Tucker tried to downplay a few weeks ago, though has felt increasingly undeniable amid his continued slump since. 

“I definitely expect him to come out of it and hit, get on base and do what he’s done for many years,” Roberts added. Right now, however, “I think there’s a lot of indecision … where you’re late on good pitches, he’s chasing more than he typically does, his swing rate is higher than it typically is over a large sample. So that, to me, is something different than you’re used to doing.”

Tucker hasn’t been the only scuffling hitter in the Dodgers’ lineup lately. Superstar leadoff man Shohei Ohtani is batting just .212 over his last nine games with no home runs. Andy Pages and Teoscar Hernández have cooled off after their hot starts to the season. And outside of Freeman –– who has recorded multiple hits in five of his last seven games, raising his season batting average to .299 –– third baseman Max Muncy is the only other regular starter who has consistently produced lately.

“It’s just one of those things that, in baseball, hitting is pretty cyclical,” Roberts said. “Right now, recently, we’re just not getting the results that we would expect.”