Rich Weighs In on Kyle Tucker’s Disastrous 2026 Season for the Dodgers

Rich opened the show with a flippant Kyle Tucker joke, made after spotting Del Tufo's hat and asking whether Tucker had given it to him. He spent a later segment taking it back.

"I kind of regret making that flippant comment right off the bat," he said. "I should know better. So I apologize on that front, because this ain't easy, man."

What changed the tone is how far this has gone past a slump. Tucker has not had a hit in over a week, which is bad enough on its own. The part that turned it into something else is that the trouble followed him into the field.

He has lost the ability to catch a baseball. Not misjudging a ball, not a bad read. The yips, in the outfield, in front of everyone.

Eric Karros, who calls games locally in Los Angeles, floated on last night's broadcast that the Dodgers might even consider sending Tucker down. That is a stunning sentence about a player with an enormous contract, and the contract is very likely part of the weight.

Then there was the shot of Tucker in the dugout, wiping away tears.

That image is what reframed the whole conversation. The adversity and the pressure are doing something to him that box scores cannot describe, and the loss of confidence is total enough that it has spread from his swing to his glove.

Which puts the ball in Dave Roberts' hands, and Rich made a point that is worth sitting with. There is a reason baseball's bosses are called managers rather than coaches. They coach players up, sure, but the job is managing a game, a clubhouse, a set of personalities, and the feelings of the people playing for them.

"I think Dave Roberts has maybe the biggest challenge of his entire tenure with the Dodgers on his hands right now," Rich said.

Roberts has an uncanny ability to push the right button and to put an arm around somebody who needs it, and the clubhouse is full of high-character guys. Somebody in studio reached back for a comparable and wondered about Max Muncy losing it for a stretch a couple of years ago. Rich could not recall anybody quite like this.

The demotion talk is the part nobody wants to test. Sending a player of this profile down would be quite a development, and Rich is not convinced Los Angeles goes there.

At least the Dodgers are built to absorb one player's difficulties and keep moving. Tucker does not have that luxury.

There is a line from A League of Their Own about there being no crying in baseball. There is, actually. Baseball is hard, and if it were easy, everyone would do it.

Nobody likes watching a player struggle like this.