With spring training fast approaching in slightly more than a month, former Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros four-time All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker remains the highest-profile free agent still on the market. With estimates of his expected contract value ranging up to and above the $400 million range, clearly no team has yet been willing to meet his price — or the projected length of his deal, which could keep paying the 29-year-old (as of Jan. 17) well into his late 30s.
The Toronto Blue Jays have been the club most closely linked to a signing of Tucker. The American League champions have been the most prolific spenders in the free-agent market this offseason, doling out contracts totaling $337 million.
And that hefty total does not take into account the $500 million, 14-year contract the Blue Jays signed with their franchise superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr., or the $16 million they will pay to former AL Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber, who unexpectedly took his player option to stay in Toronto. Taking on another massive free agent contract could push the Blue Jays offseason commitments to more than $1 billion.
So where does that leave Tucker? According to one former Major League general manager — “in deep doo-doo.”
Tucker Not Getting $400 Million: Ex-GM
Steve Phillips, now an expert commentator for MLB Network as well as the Canadian network TSN, served as New York Mets general manager from 1997 to 2003, building the 2000 team that got the Mets to their first World Series in 14 years, and only the fourth in franchise history at the time (the Mets have returned to the World Series once more, in 2015).
Speaking in an MLB Network interview Tuesday, Phillips analyzed the contract possibilities remaining for Tucker, and according to the ex-GM, they are not good. At least not for Tucker. But they may, indeed, be good news for the Blue Jays if they continue to target Tucker. According to Phillips, the four-time All-Star may now be available at a much lower price than previously expected.
“I think his market has plummeted,” Phillips said in the interview. “I think the versatility of (Cody) Bellinger has made him more of the Plan A for teams than Tucker.”
Phillips elaborated further, speaking Wednesday morning on MLB Network Radio, saying that if the Blue Jays pivot and use their remaining budget to sign their own free-agent shortstop Bo Bichette, Tucker’s price would come down drastically. In other words, Tucker needs the Blue Jays as much or more than Toronto needs him.
“If the Blue Jays go away on Tucker, if they sign Bichette and go away on Tucker — then Tucker’s in deep doo-doo,” Phillips said in the radio interview. “He’s not getting $400 million. No. And quite honestly, I don’t know that there’s $300 million for him out there.”
Tucker’s Top Price ‘Starts With a 2’
Phillips said that Tucker’s contract price could be only half of what he was believed to be seeking.
“I think it starts with a ‘2’ at the most,” the ex-GM said on MLB Network. “And quite honestly, he may end up looking at one of those short-term deals. I don’t know where his market is right now.”
According to Phillips, the New York Yankees have prioritized bringing back Bellinger, and the Los Angeles Dodgers — another of Bellinger’s former teams — are also targeting the former Astros first-round draft pick. At the same time, the Blue Jays’ “urgency” to sign him relaxed when the team signed Japan import Kazuma Okamoto, Phillips said.
Where does that leave Tucker, if the Blue Jays are out on him even at a reduced price?
“Maybe a reunion … with the Cubs, potentially,” Phillips said.
Blue Jays Get Good News in New Kyle Tucker Contract Update From Ex-MLB GM