MINNEAPOLIS – Kyle Tucker wants to play.
He wants to play right away.
He wants to play as soon as possible after lower-back spasms forced him to be removed from the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday at Target Field.
“Hopefully I can feel good, wake up tomorrow, feel fine and get in there,” he said.
Tucker cares, but caring is not the issue. If anything, his problem is that he cares too much.
Which is why Tucker and the Dodgers have to take advantage of this situation.
Regardless of how Tucker’s feels over the next couple of days, they have to give him a break.
Let him step away from the batter’s box, from his underwhelming numbers. Let him clear his head.
Place him on the injured list.
Tucker won’t want this if he feels his injury isn’t severe, but this is a case in which the Dodgers have to take the decision out of the player’s hands and do what’s right for him.
They need to let him mentally reset.
That much is obvious.
It’s obvious in how often he uncharacteristically swings at pitches that aren’t in the strike zone. It’s obvious in how quickly he passes through the clubhouse or returns to the dugout after grounding out, almost as if he doesn’t want to be seen.
And it’s not as if the Dodgers shouldn’t be careful with him from a physical standpoint anyway.
“Obviously, with the back, you gotta be mindful,” manager Dave Roberts said.
The four-time All-Star is hitting just .234 this season. In 75 games, he has six home runs and 40 runs batted in.
The Dodgers haven’t been hurt by his underwhelming performance, as their series-opening win over the Twins made them the first team in baseball to win 50 games. His numbers aren’t that awful for a No. 6 hitter, which is usually what he is these days.
But he’s a No. 6 hitter with an annual salary of $60 million, which makes it important that his early-season slump doesn’t snowball into something that would, say, lead him to be excluded from a postseason roster.
To his credit, Tucker hasn’t made any excuses.
He’s tried to grind his way out of this rut, with David Vassegh of 570 AM reporting that he went into the batting cages at Dodger Stadium after a particularly disappointing game on Sunday afternoon against the Baltimore Orioles.
Even on Monday, Tucker said he felt something in his back when taking his defensive position in right field in the bottom of the first inning.
“It just lit up,” he said.
Tucker hoped the discomfort would magically vanish or that he could withstand it, so he stayed in the game for as long as he could.
In the top of the second inning, Tucker drew a walk. But when he reached second base on a single by Tommy Edman, Tucker doubled over and eventually went into a crouch. Roberts sent Alex Call to pinch-run for him.
Tucker’s efforts are admirable. Except this plow-ahead approach hasn’t worked for him. As far as mechanical adjustments are concerned, he said last week that he’s “tried basically everything.”
Well, he hasn’t tried everything. He hasn’t tried hitting the pause button.
Considering his present headspace, he might as well.
There are some hitters, who when they underperform, don’t view their numbers as reflections of who they are as players. They could be batting .150 or hitless in their last 30 at-bats and think they will homer the next time they step into the batter’s box.
Many of the greats have this quality.
They refuse to compromise – in these hypothetical cases, compromise their self-belief in the face of overwhelming empirical evidence. While such a trait is an asset to them as athletes, it could make them intensely unlikeable off the field if they fail to compartmentalize this part of their personalities.
Tucker might be a little reserved, but by every account, he’s a likeable person. Does he have that inner arrogance to climb out of the figurative hole in which he is in now?
“It’s a great question,” Roberts said.
Roberts posited that for a well-adjusted person who happens to be an athlete like Tucker, humility is a curse.
“When they struggle, there’s not an ego,” Roberts said. “There’s humility to saying I am … what I’m showing on the scoreboard.”
Roberts said Mookie Betts is also like that.
“He’s such a great guy and a very humble guy,” Roberts said
Tucker is 29.
His personality isn’t about to change. He is who he is.
At this point, he might as well take a little mental vacation.
As he said last week, he tried everything else.