Kyle Tucker and Dalton Rushing exit Dodgers-Twins game with injuries

MINNEAPOLIS — Kyle Tucker’s disappointing first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers took a turn for the worse on Monday, when Tucker reached second base on a routine base hit from Tommy Edman and crouched on the bag in clear discomfort.

Tucker was removed from the game in the second inning for a pinch runner, and the Dodgers quickly said that Tucker, who signed the richest contract in baseball history by annual value this winter, was dealing with lower back spasms.

An inning later, they were dealt another blow when catcher Dalton Rushing exited “to rule out a concussion,” the Dodgers said. Rushing took a foul ball off his mask on Will Klein’s first pitch of the game but remained in the game and took an at-bat before being replaced by Chuckie Robinson in the third inning.

Tucker was already struggling to gain traction in the first year of his four-year, $240 million deal. The 29-year-old outfielder drew a walk in his lone at-bat Monday against Minnesota Twins starter Zebby Matthews, raising his OPS on the season to .707. That figure ranks 110th out of 152 qualified hitters in the majors this season.

He has looked very little like the four-time All-Star the Dodgers signed him to be, not just in production but in approach. He has seen a sizable jump in his aggressiveness on the first pitch, with the sixth-highest year-over-year increase in that metric in baseball. Tucker is swinging more in general, hacking at 48.7 percent of pitches he’d seen entering Monday, his highest mark since 2022. He has also chased more pitches than he has at any point since that season.

Tucker’s struggles lingering into late June once again turned him into a talking point in manager Dave Roberts’ pregame media session on Monday, hours before the star exited with an injury.

“No player wants to not perform up to their capabilities,” Roberts said. “I do think that there’s a fitting in part of it. Wanting to perform up to your expectations (is) part of it … For me, I think it’s just wanting him to get back to being who he is as a hitter.”

Maybe Tucker needs that reminder of who he is as a hitter before opposing pitchers can feel the same way, Roberts posited.

“At the end of the day, when he’s scuffling, that pitcher knows who’s in the batter’s box,” Roberts said. “That’s something that he, Kyle, can’t lose sight of, because that’s ultimately what matters in that one particular at-bat.”

Now it remains to be seen if Tucker is in the Dodgers’ lineup at all. Tucker immediately went from the basepaths to an extended conversation with hitting coach Aaron Bates, rather than a member of the Dodgers’ training staff. That might be an encouraging sign for Tucker’s health. The only way for him to escape this rut is to remain healthy enough to swing his way out of it.

Rushing’s injury could suddenly put the Dodgers’ catching situation in a precarious position. Franchise catcher Will Smith is already on the injured list with an inflamed disc in his neck that recently required an injection. Smith did not travel with the club to Minnesota and isn’t expected to be an option until at least when the Dodgers return from their 10-day road trip that began Monday.

Rushing, the club’s former top prospect, held down the everyday duties for much of Smith’s absence. While Rushing has significantly cooled off from his red-hot April (a .595 OPS through his last 100 plate appearances entering Monday), the organization still saw improvement with how the young catcher has handled the team’s pitching staff. If Rushing does miss time, the Dodgers don’t have another catcher besides Robinson on the 40-man roster, with Eliezer Alfonzo at Triple-A Oklahoma City as organizational depth.