Thursday was a big one in the Toronto Blue Jays’ offseason, perhaps even seismic in its implications as the dueling timelines of the American League champions’ present and future were front and center, and the difference could not be more stark.
The day started with the Blue Jays laying the foundation for their future by making 21 signings of international free agents, mainly from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, as listed on the team’s official transactions ledger.
But the day ended with Toronto being dealt a serious setback as four-time All-Star free agent Kyle Tucker chose not to sign with the American League champions, instead agreeing to a historic contract with the team that defeated them in the World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Tucker chose the sunny climes of Southern California over the more wintry Canadian atmosphere. But mostly, it appears, Tucker chose the money — and it is big, big money on the table from the Dodgers. According to an ESPN.com report late Thursday, Tucker will sign a four-year contract that will pay him a whopping $240 million.
That’s $60 million per year in average annual value, before the $30 million in deferred payments that the contract will include, according to ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez. Even allowing for the deferrals, Tucker will earn an annual salary of $57.1 million — making the 29-year-old from Tampa, Florida, the highest-paid player in the history of Major League Baseball. His paycheck would top the $51 million collected by Juan Soto of the New York Mets.
Blue Jays Sign 17-Year-Old Outfielder
Tucker’s deal with the Dodgers also includes player options, better known as opt-outs, after the second and third seasons of the contract, according to ESPN baseball insider Jeff Passan — though why Tucker would choose to opt out of a $60 million per year deal remains an unanswered question.
The failure to sign Tucker comes as a sharp disappointment for the Blue Jays. The lifetime .865 OPS left-handed hitter “would have been one of the few players capable of matching” the production of former Toronto shortstop Bo Bichette, according to Sportsnet correspondent Shi Davidi. Bichette is also a free agent who now appears to be on the verge of signing elsewhere, possibly with the Philadelphia Phillies.
Tucker will not be patrolling the outfield at Rogers Centre next season, or ever. But just hours before Tucker’s decision to walk away became public, the Blue Jays signed another outfielder who, they hope, one day will become a Toronto outfield star. And this one is only 17 years old.
Blue Jays Land Top-30 Prospect For Just $900K
The international free agent period opened on Thursday, and the Blue Jays kicked off the string of new signings by landing outfielder Michael Mesa out of Santo Domingo, the most heavily populated city in the Dominican Republic and also the Caribbean country’s capital.
According to Baseball America, the Blue Jays paid their second-highest bonus of any international free agent to Mesa — $900,000. But that was still magnitudes less than the $60 million being paid to Tucker by the Dodgers.
MLB Pipeline‘s scouting report on Mesa describes the teenage prospect as having “the look of a possible 20/20 contributor as a big league regular,” meaning that Mesa could potentially hit 20 home runs while stealing 20 bases at the big league level.
“Working with a clean bat path and a good bit of loft in his swing, Mesa makes a ton of hard contact,” the Pipeline report said. “He’s known as a hard worker away from the field, one who maximizes his already considerable skill set.”
Blue Jays Sign 17-Year-Old 20/20 OF Prospect on Day Kyle Tucker Chooses Dodgers