Kyle Tucker: If the Blue Jays had offered more, they would have had a chance

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Kyle Tucker: If the Blue Jays had offered more, they would have had a chance
Credit: NBC News

Why isn't Kyle Tucker in Toronto?

Many believe that the outfielder didn't really want to sign in Toronto. After all, Toronto had been on his case since the start of the off-season, and the long-term offer was on his table.

But, as in most cases, it's important to remember that money often drives these deals.

According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, if the Blue Jays had offered more than $35 million a year ($350 million in all), they would have had a real chance of signing the player.

It's worth noting that $35M is slightly less than the $35.7M Vladimir Guerrero Jr. earns on average per year. So I'm not surprised to learn that the Blue Jays offered Tucker less than Vladdy.

The Mets, however, offered Tucker more than Juan Soto ($55M) and the Dodgers signed Tucker for $60M, while Shohei Ohtani's deferred money brings the value of his contract to just over $46M.

But the difference is that the Blue Jays were offering a long-term contract, not a four-year deal with opt-outs.

While I think the Blue Jays could have upped their offer if necessary, you have to keep in mind that with the luxury tax penalties, the $35M offered to Tucker would have cost the club more than that, in the end. In the short term, that's one thing. But in the long term?

But the reality is that the Blue Jays must also have realized, at some point, that there was no point in increasing their offer. Why not? Because the path of short-term, high-priced offers made sense for the outfielder.

Steve Cohen, at one point, was even certain he'd succeeded in signing Tucker. Buster Olney talked about it in his podcast.

The Mets owner, who entered the derby in earnest recently, didn't really know that the Dodgers were seriously in the mix. The latter were working in the shadows and it worked.

That's why Cohen made his famous tweet, a few hours before Tucker's announcement in L.A. He thought, at the time, that he'd really succeeded in luring the player to the Big Apple.

This is why you shouldn't sell the bear before you've killed it: Cohen looked thick telling people to keep an eye on the file… only to escape the player in the end.

We can also assume that he was seeing red after dropping the former Astros and Cubs player… and that's why he turned around and gave Bo Bichette $42 million a year, even if he doesn't improve the defense (a goal of the Mets in 2026) of his club in the short term.

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