LOS ANGELES — Dodgers outfield production in 2025 was lacking, making it a clear need this offseason. They compensated for that by adding Kyle Tucker, who was the consensus top free agent available, rated the No. 1 free agent at the beginning of the offseason by ESPN, FanGraphs, The Athletic, MLB Trade Rumors, Baseball Prospectus, Yahoo Sports, MLB.com, and CBS Sports.
The cost was heavy, guaranteeing $240 million on a four-year contract, and even adding two chances for Tucker to opt out of the deal, such was the demand for his services on the market. But the Dodgers have the money, and they’ve been more than willing to spend it, with record-setting competitive balance tax payments the last two seasons. They also have the prospect depth to absorb the loss of draft picks for signing Tucker (and for signing Edwin Díaz, too).
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They thought Tucker was worth that kind of investment.
“Anytime you can add a guy to your lineup that is arguably better against same-side pitching — there’s really no holes in what he does offensively. Really balanced splits, versus right, versus left, incredible decision making, really good bat-to-ball skills,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Wednesday. “Just the way that will kind of complement and help further round out our offense, something we thought that would be significant in terms of the odds increasing on our championship quest.”
Dodgers outfielders as a group in 2025 hit .240/.299/.415, with a 98 wRC+ that ranked 17th among 30 MLB teams. Tucker is a career .273/.358/.507 hitter with a 138 wRC+, and has posted a 130 wRC+ or better in each of the last five seasons. Dodgers outfielders last year totaled 4.3 fWAR as a group (Andy Pages accounted for 4.1 fWAR himself), while Tucker has tallied 4.2 fWAR or higher five years in a row, averaging 4.7.
Since the start of 2021, Tucker is one of only four major league hitters with an isolated power — slugging percentage minus batting average — .200 or above combined with a strikeout rate of 16 percent or lower, along with fellow star players Mookie Betts, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and José Ramírez.
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The Dodgers in 2025 had a 21.9-percent strikeout rate as a team, 12th-lowest in the majors. Adding Tucker should help that.
But where does he fit in the Dodgers lineup? Last week, I asked this question on The Feed here at True Blue LA, and got various responses, ranging between Tucker batting as high as second or as low as fifth. But either way, he’ll be in a prime spot in a suddenly more-loaded lineup with him on board.
“I was talking with Gomer [general manager Brandon Gomes] and Andrew [Friedman] recently, and it’s just fun to think about where Kyle is going to hit in the lineup,” manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday. “He’ll be in the top third. I don’t want you guys to hold me to it right now, but [hitting] second or third seems to make sense.”
It’s still only January 22, still a month from spring training games starting and nine weeks from opening day. A lot can happen between now and then. But let’s unpack what Roberts said on Wednesday.
For the last two seasons, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman have been the Dodgers’ big three atop the lineup. If Tucker hits second or third, one of those other three is moving. It won’t be Ohtani, who seems entrenched in the leadoff spot. Betts is coming off his worst offensive season, but the Dodgers have been loath to move him down in the lineup. It took until Game 5 of the World Series for Betts to shift down in the lineup to third, his first start outside of the top two since 2021. Betts hit third in Games 5 and 6, and hit fourth in Game 7.
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Freeman in four years with the Dodgers has hit mostly second or third. He batted cleanup four times in September 2024, but those were only against left-handed pitchers to help split up the left-handed hitters in the lineup. That continued into 2025, but Freeman also hit cleanup sometimes against right-handed pitchers, and hit fourth a total of 47 times in the regular season, and batted cleanup eight times in 17 postseason games.
I think Freeman is the most likely of the Big Three to move down in the lineup. Putting Tucker second or third would mean at least two of the Dodgers’ first three hitters batting lefty, but they happen to be two of the best lefty-on-lefty hitters in the game.
Over the last five seasons Tucker hit .270/.340/.511 against southpaws, with his 136 wRC+ against same-handed pitchers third-best in the majors among batters with at least 300 such plate appearances, trailing only Yordan Alvarez (166 wRC+) and Ohtani (140).
Freeman hitting cleanup would mean three lefties in the first four hitters, which is generally fine, but can cause problems later in the game, either with an opposing manager bringing in a left-handed pitcher to handle a run of lefty batters or if trying to extend a southpaw starting pitcher a little bit deeper into the game. Last year the Dodgers occasionally countered the latter by inserting a right-handed batter before Freeman, usually Teoscar Hernández or Will Smith.
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Roberts before last year’s opener mentioned making a lefty pitcher pay the “Teoscar tax” to get through that portion of the lineup, which worked out swimmingly when Hernández hit a game-winning three-run home run off Tigers ace Tarik Skubal to turn the game around.
But whether Freeman bats fourth or fifth still highlights the depth of the Dodgers lineup now with Tucker on board. After Freeman, there will be one or both of Smith or Hernández, and that’s before considering Max Muncy, Tommy Edman, and Andy Pages.
No matter how you slice it, that’s a formidable lineup top to bottom.
