Kyle Tucker is the biggest fish remaining on the free-agent market as far as position players go. He’s also been strongly linked to the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays this offseason, which is of course a bad development for the Boston Red Sox.
Boston is more than set in its outfield and has no desire to pursue Tucker. But Tucker landing with either the Yanks or Jays would be a tough pill to swallow for the Red Sox. In the Yankees’ case, they’d be potentially upgrading on Cody Bellinger with a younger, arguably better player (ironically, the Yankees are said to be prioritizing Bellinger, with Tucker as their backup plan).
And in the case of Toronto, a Tucker deal would make their offseason a shocking success, with the Blue Jays having already signed impact starters Dylan Cease and Cody Ponce. While there could be complicated consequences to the Jays signing Tucker (including losing Bo Bichette … to the Red Sox?), Boston would feel best about the Tucker situation if he simply avoided the AL East entirely.
That’s why a new prediction from Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller on Sunday made Red Sox fans happy. Miller surmised that Tucker will ultimately land with the Los Angeles Dodgers this winter.
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“Toronto is certainly on the short list of viable landing spots for what has long been projected to be around a $400M contract for Tucker,” Miller wrote. “However, it’s hard to bet against the Dodgers.”
“Not only is “budget” an abstract concept for the twice-reigning champs, but an outfield upgrade is certainly on their offseason to-do list,” Miller continued. “And unless they’re super high on Harrison Bader or Adolis García, the only free agents who would actually be an upgrade are Tucker and Cody Bellinger—the latter of whom might be opposed to a reunion with the team that non-tendered him three winters ago.”
Tucker in LA is the best-case scenario for the Red Sox, and Miller makes a compelling case for why that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
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Featured image via Kamil Krzaczynski/Imagn Images
