Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. Aren’t sports more fun when there’s a clearly defined villain?
In today’s SI:AM:
⚾ Dodgers’ latest splash
🏀 New college hoops scandal
⛳ Golf season preview
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Three-peat incoming?
This winter’s best free agent is joining the best team in MLB.
Kyle Tucker, the 28-year-old former Astros and Cubs outfielder, has agreed to sign with the Dodgers, according to multiple reports. It’s a four-year contract worth $240 million ($60 million per year) with opt-outs after the second and third seasons. Only $30 million of Tucker’s salary is deferred.
Tucker was the consensus top player available to sign this offseason and had reportedly been deciding between the Dodgers, Blue Jays and Mets. New York and Los Angeles had been offering short-term deals with a high average annual value, while Toronto had reportedly offered more years at a lower per year average but higher total value.
The Dodgers will pay a hefty price for Tucker’s services. The $30 million in deferred salary knocks the contract’s present-day AAV down to $57.1 million. That’s the highest in MLB history, beating Juan Soto’s $51 million. That’s what Tucker will be paid, but not what the Dodgers will pay to employ him. The Dodgers’ league-leading payroll is above MLB’s highest luxury tax threshold, meaning Los Angeles will pay 110% of Tucker’s contract value in luxury tax. That brings the team’s total cost to $119.9 million per year.
Tucker was an unlikely player to break MLB’s AAV record. He’s a very good hitter, but not a perennial MVP candidate like Juan Soto or a generational power threat like Aaron Judge. Tucker has been an All-Star selection in each of the past four seasons and earned MVP votes in 2021, ’22 and ’23. (He received only one vote in ’21 and eight votes in ’22.) His best season came in ’24 but was shortened by a shin injury that limited him to 78 games. He hit 23 home runs in that limited time and had a career-best 179 OPS+.
That breakout at the plate allowed the Astros to fetch a hefty return when they traded Tucker the following offseason to the Cubs. He got off to a great start in Chicago, too, posting a .291/.395/.537 slash line with 17 homers in 83 games through the end of June. But then he fell into a brutal slump, slashing .225/.348/.342 the rest of the way, with only 12 extra-base hits in his final 53 games. There was an explanation for his dismal performance, though. The Cubs revealed in late August that Tucker had been attempting to play through a hairline fracture in his right hand. He had hit well in the immediate aftermath of the injury, but mechanical changes to his swing to compensate for the injury led to the slump.
Regardless of whether he’s a truly elite hitter or merely an A-minus hitter, Tucker will be a valuable addition to a team whose lone offensive weak spot was in the outfield. (Their other deficiency was their bullpen, which they addressed by signing former Mets closer Edwin Díaz earlier this offseason.) A more budget-conscious team would be anxious to have Tucker perform at an MVP level, but the Dodgers have such deep pockets that they can afford to pay a record salary to a player who will be their third- or fourth-best hitter.
Tucker will essentially replace Michael Conforto in the Dodgers’ outfield, likely spending most of his time in right field and bumping Teoscar Hernández to left, with Andy Pages in center. Tucker has historically been a very good fielder (he won a Gold Glove in 2022), but the stats show a decline in recent years. Statcast graded him as a league-average fielder last season. Hernández, meanwhile, is among the worst defensive outfielders in the majors and would be a DH on any other team that didn’t have Shohei Ohtani. Signing Tucker allows the Dodgers to shift him to the least important defensive position on the field.
Tucker’s contract is also sure to spark a fresh round of calls for a salary cap in MLB. The gap between the game’s wealthiest and stingiest franchises is expected to be a major sticking point in CBA negotiations, as the current contract between the owners and the players union is set to expire at the end of this upcoming season. But do people forget how last season played out for the Dodgers? Everyone was crowing about them being an unstoppable superteam after they added Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to an already stacked roster, but then Los Angeles went 93–69, the fifth-best record in the majors. The Tucker signing undeniably makes the Dodgers better, but it likely won’t make them so good that it’s worth upending the entire structure of the sport.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- The Dodgers once again made a big splash in free agency as they signed outfielder Kyle Tucker to a massive deal. Tom Verducci gives his 10 thoughts on the record deal.
- Pat Forde condemns the silence in the wake of another point-shaving scandal in college basketball, which has simmered in plain sight for more than a year.
- Two former players struck a plea deal ahead of the announcement of the latest game-fixing probe, Forde and Michael Rosenberg report. Forde and Rosenberg also provide a look at the 26 charged in the alleged scheme.
- Can anyone take down Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner? On the women’s side, can Aryna Sabalenka get a third title? Jon Wertheim answers those questions and breaks down the men’s and women’s matchups to watch at the Australian Open.
- The PGA Tour returns this week at the Sony Open in Hawai‘i, and Max Schreiber identifies the key storylines that will define the 2026 season.
- Bob Harig writes about how Rory McIlroy, while making his 2026 debut in Dubai, slammed LIV Golf in the wake of Brooks Koepka’s PGA Tour return.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. Victor Wembanyama’s shot from the opposite free-throw line during warmups.
4. Sharks youngster Macklin Celebrini’s between-the-legs assist. The 19-year-old Celebrini is having an incredible season (third in the NHL with 71 points), and I can’t wait for a bigger audience to discover him in the Olympics.
3. Dominique Darius’s game-winning three for Syracuse in triple overtime.
2. Anthony Black’s dunk on four people.
1. Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill’s ridiculous diving backwards kick save.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Rich Get Richer With Dodgers’ Signing of Kyle Tucker.
