We're only a month away from spring training, but free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker still hasn't found a new team. The latest offer came from the New York Mets, who are offering more annual money on a shorter deal. Will that ploy work?
Kyle Tucker has proven himself, year after year. He was a big-hitting outfielder with the Houston Astros from 2018 to 2024, and with Scott Boras as his agent, he wanted to get paid. When the time came, signing Kyle Tucker to a huge long-term deal someday was going to take a lot of money.
Tucker wasn't eligible for free agency until after the 2025 season, and he had to go through arbitration three years in a row. He made $5 million with the Astros in 2023, and $12 million in 2024.
The Astros had decided that they weren't interested in dealing with Boras and spending several hundred million dollars on Tucker, so they traded him to the Chicago Cubs for third baseman Isaac Paredes, pitcher Hayden Wesneski and top-prospect Cam Smith.
Now it was the Cubs who had to made a decision.
Playing under his last arbitration deal worth $16.5 million, Tucker didn't have the season he wanted. He missed 26 games with a hand injury and had just 22 home runs, his lowest total in five years. Before the season ended, the Cubs made it clear that no long-term offer was coming from them.
That was four months ago.
Tucker was the winter’s best free agent because he had the 10th-best fWAR (23.4) since 2021. Annually, Tucker ranks among the top hitters in on-base percentage, chase rate and whiff rate. Over the past three seasons, Tucker owns a slash line of .278/.380/.511 with a 150 OPS+.
But as a mid-January, there was still no deal. There have been talks with several teams, but nothing was close to getting done. Years and dollars were still an issue.
Now the New York Mets are trying to something done a different way. They've made an offer to Tucker for bigger money — $50 million a year — but shorter length and with bult-in opt-outs.
Here are the details from Mets Roundtable writer Bob McCullough.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said there was still work to be done this winter, and future moves might still be coming.
"I wouldn't take anything off the table," Stearns said. "I think we are, and will continue to be, involved in talks at all ranges of free agency and the trade market."
The Mets are one of the richest franchises in the game, but they've been losing more people than they've been bringing in. Signing Tucker would ease some of that pain. Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso are all gone.
Pairing Tucker with Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor would be big. The National League East is tough, but the Mets still want to be in that mix. Adding Tucker — somehow and in some way — would sure help that cause.