For the third consecutive off-season, the Toronto Blue Jays did not land the big fish in the hitting market.
After months of courting premier slugger Kyle Tucker, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed the star outfielder to a record-breaking four-year, $240 million deal on Thursday night.
That signing left the Blue Jays standing at the proverbial altar for the third season in a row, after their efforts to sign superstars Shohei Ohtani ahead of the 2024 campaign and Juan Soto ahead of the 2025 campaign ended in disappointment.
Keegan Matheson of MLB.com joined First Up on TSN1050 on Friday morning to discuss the deal and where the Blue Jays may go from here with some strong options still available on the free agent market.
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by anything anymore with the Dodgers,” Matheson said. “They have that ‘screw you’ money, they can do whatever they want, and with how much it’s going to be taxed on top of it, this is more than $60 million a year they’re spending on Kyle Tucker.”
Tucker has reportedly been signed by the Dodgers to a four-year contract worth $240 million, with $30 million of it deferred. That gives the contract a present-day average annual value of $57.1 million, a record, beating Soto’s $51 million AAV with the New York Mets.
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. With Tucker, they’re projected for a CBT payroll of slightly over $400 million by season’s end, according to Cot’s Contracts.
“The Dodgers have positioned themselves as a team that doesn’t even need to go through the entire courtship process,” Matheson said. “They don’t need to try to market themselves to teams, they can just say ‘Hey, at the end of free agency, come to us, and we can blow [any offer from another team] out of the water.’”
The sting for the Blue Jays and their fans is two-fold. The Jays – along with the Mets – were considered among the favourites to land Tucker until the Dodgers swooped in. The Dodgers are also the team that used a star-studded lineup and pitching staff to beat the Blue Jays in Game 7 of the World Series in November.
“[This level of spending is] amazing to witness, it’s frustrating for every single other fan base, team and front office to witness, but it’s a heavyweight off-season. It feels like we’re seeing the World Series itself play out here, the Blue Jays have made big moves, the Dodgers have added [Edwin] Diaz and now Tucker, that is dangerous.”
Matheson points out another frustration for the Blue Jays and their fans in that Tucker offered a perfect fit for the team today and moving forward.
“It’s a hard way to lose out on a guy because Tucker fit the Blue Jays perfectly,” Matheson said. “Good players fit any team, whatever, but Tucker specifically fit the Blue Jays in 2026 and beyond so well because this team is losing George Springer next off-season, Daulton Varsho’s contract is up, they have not developed an outfielder in a long time. You [have to] go back to Kevin Pillar, [and] for an offensive outfielder you have to go back to Vernon Wells I think. It’s been a long time since a star outfielder was developed in this city, so the Blue Jays need that long-term outfield option.
“At a certain point, when I see four years, $240 million, if I’m the Blue Jays, sitting in that front office, it’s a moment where you throw up your hands and say ‘Hey, what can I do?’ It’s a deal only the Dodgers can hand this player, and it’s not like the Blue Jays were about to go four years, $270 million, there’s no beating that offer.”
So where can the Blue Jays go from here to pick up the pieces? Toronto has had already a busy off-season in signing pitcher Dylan Cease to a seven-year deal worth $210 million, the largest contract given to a free agent in franchise history, and made some potentially sneaky-good signings in starter Cody Ponce (three years, $30 million), reliever Tyler Rogers (three years, $37 million) and third baseman Kazuma Okamoto (four years, $60 million).
Two options for hitters that Matheson pointed out are Bo Bichette, who is an obvious fit after spending his entire career with the Blue Jays since they drafted him in the second round of the 2016 MLB June Amateur Draft, and former New York Yankees outfielder Cody Bellinger. Bichette has repeatedly stated his desire to stay in Toronto long term alongside Vladimir Guerrero Jr., after the two rose through the minors and debuted together in 2019.
“The question I have now, both with Bichette and Bellinger, is how do the Blue Jays do that financially? We’ve learned over the past couple of years that the word budget just doesn’t mean anything in Toronto, and that’s a good thing,” Matheson said. “There’s no hard budget being put out there. There is kind of a first level to the Blue Jays budget, where [they say] ‘this is the money [we] can do what [we] want with,’ but we’ve seen with Ohtani, Soto, and maybe to a certain extent with Tucker, that they can make room for more and blow past tax barriers for the right guy.
“The question becomes: do the Blue Jays view Bichette or Bellinger as one of those guys that’s worth stretching, worth going to ownership about?”
Bichette doesn’t fit as seamlessly as Tucker would have into the Blue Jays’ lineup moving forward. After the emergence of third baseman/outfielder Addison Barger and second baseman Ernie Clement a season ago, the move for Andres Gimenez to shortstop and the signing of Okamoto at third, the Blue Jays have a lot of infielders vying for playing time.
“If you’re a Blue Jays fan you’re looking at Bichette and saying ‘Hell yeah, this guy’s been around his whole career right alongside Guerrero Jr., that home run in Game 7 should have been right behind Joe Carter as one of the biggest moments in this franchise’s history and you can’t let him get away,” Matheson said. “I fully understand that sentiment, and fans wanting Bo to be back here, I just look at the money sense it will make.
“I think it makes more baseball sense than money sense right now, given where that market might end up. I think the Blue Jays are still going to be in that [market], they’ll see where it goes, but an interesting few days ahead guys because I think this market will start to move quickly.”
