Dave Roberts' Kyle Tucker excuses further emphasize what a disaster he'd be with Yankees

The thing about the 2026 regular-season Los Angeles Dodgers is that they are not very good. Since July 1, they're tied with the Mariners for the 21st-best offense in the game, per wRC+ (91). They have a collective .698 OPS, 22nd in the game, during that time. It's not quite "New York Yankees" bad, but it's certainly below-par, and they're not missing an Aaron Judge-type figure of any kind.

They are missing a Cody Bellinger type, though. He's not injured. His name is Kyle Tucker and he's been active this whole time, at a cost of $60 million for the season. But he is missing. That's another thing about the 2026 Dodgers. They signed Tucker and Edwin Diaz at exorbitant costs this offseason, and both have been dreadful. They're lucky they have a one-of-a-kind television deal and no payroll mistake ever hinders them in other areas, pending the outcome of the federal investigation into Dodgers and Lakers owner Mark Walter — wait, sorry, scratch out Lakers.

Fans have begged the Yankees for years to consider personality fits and the New York spotlight in their personnel decisions. Credit to the Bombers' front office: they front-loaded chemistry this winter. They watched one year of Bellinger's seamless fit. They watched how his excellent defense held the outfield together. They watched how, despite a somewhat limited offensive ceiling, he could still put forth metronomically consistent at-bats with 30-homer power. The hard-hit rate spreadsheets favored Tucker. So did the market. His price tag flew out of the Yankees' range, and New York was happy to come down with a player they knew was a glove-like fit in their program.

And Tucker? He left Chicago having let fans down, and arrived in LA with a primary objective: prove you can handle the pressure. Don't let it bother you. Let the game come to you.

On Saturday, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts took Tucker out of the lineup, admitting that the reason behind the shift was the player's frustrations with playing at home. Down 4-1 in the ninth on Sunday, Tucker half-tracked a fly ball to the wall and let it doink off his glove, eliciting boos from the eight people in the Dodger Stadium crowd who were aware of who Tucker was and were not currently filming a TikTok food review. He was even spotted gesturing towards Shohei Ohtani with his outfield glove, as if to say, "You want to go out there? I hate this."

Yankees would be in full meltdown mode if they'd paid $60 million for Kyle Tucker

If Tucker were a Yankee, his enormous contract would be the primary anchor on a team fans have already grown quite distasteful of. Or, you know, maybe he'd be able to tune things out here? Maybe he just hates Dodger Stadium, posting a .558 OPS at home and .840 on the road?

No. If he were a Yankee, that would be the same. Perhaps the reports were true? Maybe the motor is just not there, and the fans reminding him every day that they don't believe in him eats away at his last remaining bit of desire.

Regardless of the hypotheticals, this weekend should've been the final nail in the coffin. Signing this man would've been a monumental mistake, and the only awe-inspiring thing he would've done in pinstripes is break the boundaries of how far an OPS can plummet without Aaron Judge's protection.

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