MMO Roundtable: Reaction to Kyle Tucker Signing With Dodgers

The Kyle Tucker sweepstakes are over and the new evil empire continued to add to their stacked roster. Tucker signed a four-year, $240 million deal with the Dodgers that includes a $64 million signing bonus and $30 deferred. The Mets’ offer was for four years, $220 million with a $75 million signing bonus and no deferrals. Both the Mets and Dodgers offered Tucker opt-outs after the second and third seasons.

With all that said, the Mets badly needed a player of Tucker’s caliber, and now their outfield still looks grim. Cody Bellinger is still a free agent, and there have been whispers of interest in Lars Nootbaar from the Cardinals. One thing is for sure: Steven Cohen and David Stearns have a lot of work to do.

With that, here are our reactions in light of the Tucker news.

Patrick Glynn

My response: if the boos in Chicago worried Kyle Tucker, I can’t wait until he shows face around the league! This is worse than Kevin Durant joining the Warriors. This is like if DeMar Derozan joined the Warriors during their championship run. Good for you, but are you going to be the reason they win it all?  Was it the ring you were seeking? Will you get what you wanted? Was that $60 million? Great job on your agent’s behalf.

Matthew Tutrone

Never thought I’d say this, but maybe a lockout in 2027 will actually be good for the long-term health of MLB. Disparity has gotten far too out of control, and the league probably needs a reset. I stand with the Players’ Union, and there are far too many bum owners with no interest in fielding an actually competitive team, but what the Dodgers have been doing the past few years is just bad for competitiveness across the league. There definitely needs to be a salary floor, but there may need to be a cap too.

James Villani

Surely the Mets were involved, and credit to Stearns, Cohen, and staff for being that, however, based off what was leaking beforehand it truly didn’t seem like the Mets were a realistic landing spot and more so just used as a bargaining chip. If that was indeed the case, what could you have done differently?

As for Tucker, I’ll never blame an athlete for chasing championships or money. Luckily for him, he gets both of those things in one of the most lucrative deals in the sport’s history. All power to him.

Mathias Altman-Kurosaki 

All the focus was on the Blue Jays and Mets, but I had a feeling that the radio silence coming from Los Angeles meant the Dodgers were lurking. Here we are, the Dodgers have snagged another prized free agent. The Mets, and the 29 other teams, can try all they want, but in the end, it’s going be nearly impossible to stop a Dodgers three-peat. They keep adding to their Death Star, and have cemented themselves as the evil empire of MLB. There is still time for the Mets to make some moves, but it’s hard to envision them getting within even shouting distance of the Dodgers.

Dave Melendi

It’s disappointing. Adding Tucker would have been the first move this offseason that I would have been excited about. The core is gone and the players brought in to replace them to me are underwhelming.

Brandyn Pokrass

Seeing the numbers, I can’t fault the Mets here. Going to $55 million for Tucker, especially with no deferrals, is a damn good offer. The Dodgers, with their $2.1 Billion in deferred money, can evidently get whoever they want though.

I am truly fascinated in how the Mets approach the rest of the offseason. There are avenues to improving the team, but there isn’t really a Kyle Tucker-level player out there anymore, unless you consider Bellinger to be that. Add in the need for pitching, and this is truly a task that David Stearns was hired for.

And on a large picture front, baseball is heading for a BAD lockout. The deferral rule is getting abused by the Dodgers, to the point where every other contender that wants to spend money can’t really compete with them. A large chunk of the league refuses to spend money on players. Spring training is around the corner, and plenty of impact players are still unsigned. The war over a salary cap/floor is going to be ugly, and that’s not including the various other issues that are sure to pop up during negotiations. We should all enjoy baseball while we have it in 2026, because there is no guarantee that we will have it for the following season.

Johnluke Chaparro

I am incredibly annoyed and disappointed. Not at Steve Cohen or David Stearns, though. $75 million signing bonus along with a 50 plus million AAV with no deferrals is throwing the bank and they tried their hardest. What grinds my gears is that even with all of the money thrown at him, he spurned us to take the easy way out for a ring. I mean, good for him, I guess? It’s his choice but why must the Mets be used as a team to bounce off of for a negotiation instead of a destination? I know, World Series titles and all, but (and I’m probably biased saying this) New York is a wonderful place to play and when you win here? You are basically an idol. We might be a bit out there but the fan base treats it’s players well for the most part! Give us results and we’ll love you back!

Maybe I’m looking too deep into something that’s not really relevant but I’m annoyed that we get pulled into this false sense of promise, only to have the rug pulled under us. Maybe Tucker isn’t cut out for New York, and if that were the case, why drag us into the fight to begin with? All for a negotiating ploy? I’m all for teams spending money and it’s good for the game, but it feels like a cop out when a team with massive amounts of money feels the need to constantly defer. It feels very shady and counter intuitive to what they should be doing (and what the Mets actually do).

I’ll never totally get on a player for wanting to join a winner but it feels very cheap when players keep joining the Dodgers bandwagon on these contracts that undercut the market. Why should the Dodgers be praised when they pay half of what a player should get right now, when the Mets actually give the player the current value they are entitled? It just feels like we were ripped off by both Tucker and the Dodgers.

Nick Kalantzopoulos

My thoughts when the signing went down were “lol of course he did” followed quicky by “60 million?! I mean that’s just insane.” I’ll say from the second we heard it was the Dodgers, Blue Jays and Mets as the finalists, I had the Dodgers getting him the entire time. The fact that the Blue Jays were the only team offering him long term and that he didn’t take that means he was looking for a reason not to and he found that in the NY/LA offers. And if the Mets/Dodgers were offering similar styles of contract, which was always reported, there was no reason not to pick the Dodgers.

Here’s what I’ll say to those who want a salary cap in response. The Dodgers’ CBT is now going to far exceed 400M. So is this supposed salary cap gonna be 500M? Is it gonna be 300-400M and the Dodgers are going to be forced to get rid of players immediately? Are contracts going to be grandfathered in? The short answer is there won’t be a cap, and if there was one it’d either A. Severely penalize the dodgers INSTANTLY (the league would never go for that let alone the players), or B. It wouldn’t severely penalize them and they’d still be spending way more than any other team.

And we don’t have to imagine what a free agency involving a salary cap (and a deadline!) would look like for a star player. We had that last year with Roki Sasaki. And how did that one end up? He went to the Dodgers. The only difference: the player got less than he deserved, the owner pocketed the difference and the team (thus far) doesn’t get penalized for making an overpriced signing. So as always, be careful what you wish for.

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