LOS ANGELES — In the wake of another championship, which made them the first Major League Baseball team in a quarter century to repeat, the Los Angeles Dodgers mostly downplayed their ability to dominate another offseason. They believed their roster was already good enough, and they vowed to let the market come to them rather than chase stars aggressively.
They got them anyway.
Kyle Tucker, the consensus best player available in free agency, agreed to join the Dodgers on Thursday, sources told ESPN, a little more than a month after star closer Edwin Diaz did the same. Tucker’s deal is for four years at $240 million and includes opt-outs after the second and third seasons, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers.
The Dodgers hardly ever reward opt-outs under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. But they made a similar concession for Japanese starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto two offseasons ago and ultimately did the same for Tucker, a mechanism that helped them beat out the New York Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays for his services.
Tucker, who will turn 29 on Saturday, comes in as the everyday right fielder and joins a star-studded lineup that includes Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Will Smith and Max Muncy. The addition of Tucker ultimately could push the Dodgers to trade corner outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, but a source familiar with the team’s thinking said that is not necessarily a foregone conclusion. The team can easily shift Hernandez from right field to left, with Andy Pages remaining the everyday center fielder and utility man Tommy Edman, coming off ankle surgery, entrenched as the second baseman.
Tucker’s deal comes with $30 million deferred, a source told ESPN, confirming multiple reports. That gives it a present-day average annual value of $57.1 million, a record, beating Juan Soto‘s $51 million AAV with the Mets. Because the Dodgers are already on track to exceed MLB’s highest luxury tax threshold in 2026, prompting a 110% average, Tucker will cost them $119.9 million annually.
As a way to offset those deferrals, the Dodgers also rewarded Tucker with a $64 million signing bonus, $54 million of which will be paid up front, according to a source.
That, sources have said, is not a problem. Dodgers owner Mark Walter has generated outsize revenue from Ohtani’s presence over the past two seasons and benefits from a lucrative, ironclad local media contract at a time when many teams are seeing those revenues dry up. Walter has been adamant about pumping that money back onto the roster, especially with a three-peat possible and a lockout looming thereafter.
The Dodgers paid close to $170 million in luxury taxes last year, more than the second- and third-place Mets and New York Yankees combined. Their competitive balance tax (CBT) payroll finished at $417 million. With Tucker, they’re projected for a CBT payroll of slightly over $400 million by season’s end, according to Cot’s Contracts.
When healthy, Tucker is one of the sport’s most gifted players — a complete hitter who plays excellent defense and can be a threat on the bases. Tucker showed that with the Houston Astros, the team that made him a fifth pick out of high school, from 2021 to 2023, during which he slashed .278/.353/.517 with 89 home runs and 69 stolen bases while compiling 16.3 Baseball Reference wins above replacement and winning a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger.
The 2024 season was looking even better. As of June 3, Tucker held a .979 OPS and seemed on his way to making a case for the MVP. But he missed three months with a shin fracture and was traded to the Chicago Cubs in the ensuing offseason, going into his final year before free agency.
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