Last week I wrote why I did not think that the Dodgers would be signing Kyle Tucker. Waiting for Bear to finish his Part 2 Tribute Post, Today, I am moving more about in direction that the Dodgers could sign Kyle Tucker. The Dodgers lose $87MM in payroll for 2026, so there certainly is financial room.
There will be competition, but the teams that can afford Tucker seem to have other priorities. Most consider, LAD, NYY, NYM, Philadelphia, Toronto, and San Francisco.
San Francisco needs pitching and more pitching. Their MiLB pitching has not come up strong, so they will necessarily be looking for high priced FA pitching just to compete in the NL West. Pitchers should want to pitch at Oracle, and power hitters not named Barry Bonds want to stay away.
NYY has Judge in RF and want to re-sign Bellinger. Will they also look to re-sign Grisham who played well for NYY? They could also prefer Harrison Bader for CF for his defense, and Bader would definitely consider NYY.
NYM has Soto in RF, and they need pitching. With Brandon Nimmo in LF, the Mets need a CF, not a RF. They have enough good young SP that they can make a decent package for an established CF. The one driving factor for NYM is that they will need a bat to replace The Polar Bear, Pete Alonso. Tucker is not a 1B, and neither are Soto and Nimmo.
Toronto came away from last week’s GM meeting with the most buzz tying them with Tucker. They are still focusing on re-signing Bo Bichette since he is warming to the idea of playing 2B. Their second biggest need is pitching. I completely acknowledge that Anthony Santander had a horrific year, worse than Conforto. He cannot possibly hit worse in 2026 than he did in 2025. The Blue Jays are going to hope that his shoulder injury was the problem in 2025. He is not tradeable, and they are not going to release him with 4 years remaining. After the Vlad Jr. deal, I cannot see Toronto signing both Bichette and Turner, especially with Varsho a year away from FA.
With two pitchers who are better used as relievers, José Berrios and Eric Lauer, penciled in as starters, they need a couple more starters and more high leveraged relievers. This is why I believe the Dodgers and Toronto could be good trade partners.
Philadelphia needs to re-sign Kyle Schwarber. They will also need to find a replacement for Ranger Suárez. They have 5 solid starters, but no depth in upper MiLB. Is another pitcher in the Suárez tier on their radar? Suárez himself? But any team can use Kyle Tucker. Is Philadelphia okay with a DFA for Nick Castellanos if they cannot find a trade partner? This could be the year that Justin Crawford, who at 21 owned AAA pitchers last year, finds his way to Philadelphia as their CF. They want to move Alec Bohm and find another 3B. Philly has 4 LH hitters currently listed in their lineup, one being Crawford. A 5th would be Schwarber. Do they want another LH hitter? I guess with Tucker they would not care. Like with LAD, Philly has options. How about an outside the box scenario where Philadelphia signs Alonso and pushes Harper back into RF?
One of those options is re-signing Harrison Bader to play CF and having Crawford move to a corner OF spot. Bader played well for Philadelphia, and he is a NE guy.
IMO, the Dodgers will be patient with Tucker. I do not see them getting out in front and overpaying for Tucker as they were with Shohei, or Blake Snell last year. There is also nothing out there that says that Tucker would favor LAD or even have any reason to make them a team of preferred destination. He is from Tampa, and may find the East Coast more to the liking of his family. Is he more of a mercenary where he will go to the top $$$$? I have no idea how he feels about deferred money. This could be the last year that the Dodgers can take advantage of signing players with deferrals. MLBPA will need to concede somewhere, and deferrals may be the line in the sand they are willing to cross.
There is no doubt that Tucker will help the Dodgers, and a corner OF is a position of need. Hopefully the other teams will consummate their priorities that do not include Tucker, and the field will be reduced to where the Dodgers feel comfortable, perhaps in more of a Mookie level deal rather than a $400MM+. Tucker is a contact hitter with good power. The Dodgers can use all the bat to ball skills hitters they can find. Having one who can hit, slug, and steal bases is a very good find. He has a good arm, but with limited range, making him a not quite 5 tool player. The Dodgers will stay in the Tucker bidding all the way to the end, especially if he is willing to sign a 10 year $360MM deal.
Enjoyed reading your article always, Jeff. A question out of blue, but do we know approximately how much teams make in playoffs? I’m curious as to how much Dodgers made from their playoff run in 2025 or 2024.
I can answer that, James. In 2024, the 25 receipts have not been announced yet, the team received 129.1 million. They handed out 46.47 million. Those receiving a full share got 477,441. There were 79 full shares handed out. There were 17.49 partial shares, and 405,000 in cash awards. By comparison, the 23 Rangers share was 38.81 million. Every player who spent time in the majors with the Dodgers in 24 got a ring and some money, even guys who appeared in very few games.
The record for share money is 516,347 by the Astros in 22. They of course awarded fewer full shares. The Yankees got 354.572 as the losing team. There are plenty of financial rewards for making the playoffs. Those in Atlanta got just 9,548.
I see, thank you for the info. In the event Dodgers sign Tucker, would you guys like to see Pages moved to corner (Teo will have to be traded) or do we keep trying him at CF.
Unless the Dodgers acquire a CF, Pages will be the CF and Teo will be the other corner OF.
If they sign Tucker, Teo would most likely move to left with Pages staying in center. But Tucker’s defensive numbers slipped a lot. Could be because of injury. My choice would be trade Teo, move Pages to his more natural position in right, sign a guy like Bader as a short-term CF solution and move Tucker to left. Corner outfielders are usually interchangeable to left or right with some exceptions. Teo made his best defensive play of 24 as a leftfielder in the World Series when he threw Stanton out at the plate.
And Teo made his best play in RF in the 10th inning of WS game 3. On a Nathan Lukes double, he played the ball off the wall and fired a strike to Tommy Edman who threw a strike to Will Smith for the out at home. Edman was the recognized defensive hero on that play, but unless Teo makes his play and throw to Edman, Schneider scores and who knows how that will play out from there.
A glorious play, one of several that made it a gloriously tight series.
Corner outfielders aren’t really that interchangeable. You want a Clemente in RF and a Kwan in LF.
My winter fantasy OF still reads Teo-Buxton-Pages….
But I may need to settle for Teo-Pages-Tucker,
I found this gem on True Blue LA. It is the WS from a Blue Jays fan point of reference.
https://www.truebluela.com/post/PDUb8BFHiBz5
Great video. They seem like such nice people.
Well, they are Canadians.
I wonder what a similar video from Philadelphia fans might look like.
I was thinking the same thing about the Blue Jays fans.
NSFW
That was really great. Now I feel even luckier to have been on the right side of it.
Good piece. I like the process of elimination leading to us being the last team standing. Maybe we should root for Bichette to re-sign with TOR & Schwarber with PHI.
I don’t see SF or CHC signing him, nor NYM due to Soto.
Yankees might be the biggest threat after TOR.
Enrique Hernández, a free-agent utility player most recently underwent surgery on his left elbow to repair an injury that had impacted him throughout the summer. Hernández initially injured his elbow in May. Continuing to play through the malady resulted in him suffering a bone fracture, he said. Notably, he did not offer a timetable on his return other than saying it would cost him an appearance in what would have served as his third World Baseball Classic tournament.
According to MLBTR, Kike suffered a torn muscle in his elbow. That led to a elbow tendon detaching from the bone, not a bone fracture. It is unknown how long his recovery time will be, but he has as you stated said he will be unable to play in the WBC which happens during spring training, so it seems doubtful he would be ready for the start of the regular season. Not sure the Dodgers want him back. They have an abundance of infielders who are versatile.
THE SOLUTION (or How I Fixed The Team That Just Won the World Series), as proposed by STB:
1) Sign Bichette to play 2B (about half the $ commitment that signing Tucker would be).
2) Trade for either Kwan or Donovan to play LF. Kwan is the better fielder, while Donovan is the better hitter and can also play 3B.
3) Move Pages to RF
4) a)Let Edman play CF with some help from Kim or b) sign Bader or c) trade for Brenton Doyle of the Rockies (has played 3 seasons and only 2024 was decent offensively so his trade value has come down). Rockies always need pitching and we have lots of that.
5) Sign one of the following bullpen pieces: Williams, Suarez, Fairbanks, Iglesias (no way AF spends the money it will take to get Diaz after the Scott debacle).
6) Trade Teo
Lineup
Mookie
Freddie
Bichette
Shohei
Smith
Kwan/Donovan
Muncy
Pages
Edman
Bench
Kim
Miggy
Rushing
Call
Starters
Yamamoto
Snell
Shohei
Glasnow
Sheehan
Stone/Wrobo/Ryan (pick 1)
Bullpen (pick 7)
Scott
Vesia
Banda
Dreyer
Treinen
Graterol
Stewart
Casparius
Wrobo
Stone
Ryan
Hurt
Brilliant!
Maybe not quite as brilliant as my plan, but still…
Sasaki will be in the rotation per Brandon Gomes.
Rockies haven’t made a trade with LA in years. Monfort dislikes trading players in their own division. Doyle is going nowhere near LA>
We may very well not get Doyle, but the fact that Montfort doesn’t like to trade with LA is no longer valid. I’m sure DePo would have never taken that job if he didn’t have last call on trades, especially fairly minor trades as opposed to a super star.
If we don’t get Doyle it won’t be because of Montfort, who by the way, has turned a lot of stuff over to his son because he’s one of the big shots on the owner’s committee negotiating the next CBA and wants to concentrate on that.
Still doubtful. I live here in Colorado and Monfort is not all that popular. Most fans want him to sell the franchise.
I forgot to add our new bullpen piece (whomever that turns out to be) to the bullpen list.
Where is Sasaki?
This is why I count on you sharp readers to make corrections. I guess they plan to use Sasaki as a starter again next season, but I’m not so sure that’s going to work. If not, I guess he gets a bullpen spot unless he reverts to prior form where he needed more work at OKC.
That’s a very nice offseason
LA will only sign Tucker IF he takes less than he’d get elsewhere because he wants a strong chance of winning a ring.
Dan, I think their offer would have more to do with how much deferral they could get Tucker to take, if he’s willing to take the deferrals I think their offer would be very competitive.
What if 10y/$360m is the high bid and it’s ours?
I think that is about fair in my opinion, but usually these guys get way more than I think they would.
Tucker will make a ton o’ money no matter what.
But no team sets him up for October glory like the Dodgers. No other contender really comes close.
And that may be worth millions in bonuses and endorsement income.
Teo does NOT want to be traded. He wants a chance to win a 3rd ring. He’ll be working very hard to improve his defense and with the inevitable switch to left field he will be better. Will he be “better enough?” We’ll see.
I included him in the trade for Kwan to keep StB happy
Cleveland might be very happy to have Teo if we pay a good chunk of his salary, or add some more prospects. Might be a good spot for him to DH along with playing some outfield.
STB, are you trying to trade Teo this off season?
Take a look at my long post above, Keith. After all the moves I made, I didn’t have any room for Teo.
STB the way your throwing those names around it seems like you’ve been possessed by the spirit of trader Jack McKeon😀
or at the very least having a Jerry Depoto moment
I am really conflicted about Teo. I would feel less conflicted if he just moves to LF, and gets taken out for a late-inning defensive replacement.
Kwan, I think, would be relatively easy to acquire, but Teo has a lot more pop and seems very popular in the clubhouse.
Honestly, I think the Red Sox should try to acquire Teo for Abreuand maybe recreate some of that old Big Papi energy.
Possible outfields:
Teo-Buxton-Pages
Teo-Pages-Tucker
Kwan-Pages-Tucker
Kwan-Pages-Abreu
Ward/Call-Pages-Teo
That last one is the status quo OF.
Both those guys made off seasons more interesting and fun. Happy to be in their company.
Teo seemed to be a bad defender when he was nursing a leg injury. He did not give 100% to protect himself against aggravating existing injury.
Teo was a very good offensive player when he used all fields and wasn’t prone to pulling the ball. It also seemed that he stopped being a good hitter while he was nursing his leg injury.
I think a healthy Teo could be an adequate outfielder and as such would not be pigeonholed into a DH role. He likes playing RF but his stats were better when playing LF but the Dodgers had to put Conforto there (or did they?)
If Conforto and Teo were both replaced with the likes of Kwan and Tucker, the Dodgers would have a very different offense and defense. Strong in LF and RF and adequate in CF if Pages were still there.
I want a new 3rd baseman and would be more than happy with Royce Lewis or Bo Bichette at 3rd and Max on the bench. Adding Bichette to the infield , either at 2nd or 3d in place of Kim or Max would add a lot of contact into the lineup. Doubt that both Tucker and Bichette would be added to the team.
A lot of scenarios depend on whether Edman’s surgery will allow him to play CF full time.
I would like to add both Kwan and Donovan and while I would also like to replace Pages, he might be the best value in RF with some backup duty in CF.
Bottom line is that I am close to the lineup StB proposed except I put Bichette at 3rd and Donovan at second.
SS Betts
1B Freeman
C Smith
DH Ohtani
3B Bichette
LF Kwan
RF Pages
2B Donovan
CF Edman
Bench= Muncy, Kim, Freeland, Rushing
Traded = Teo, Call, others
I used to want the Dodgers to get Royce Lewis and his great potential. He’s from OC and has shown flashes of greatness.
Now I’m a Buxton hawk.
Last season, Lewis hit to an OPS of just .671 in just 106 games played.
Buxton, meanwhile, hit to an .878 OPS, with 36 HRs, in 126 games played.
The unfortunate decision to over-pay for Conforto essentially guaranteed that Teo would play RF.
Oh well.
Conforto got paid $17 million.
Buxton’s contract will pay him $15m for each of the next three seasons.
We’re getting very close to an agreement here, Fred. Maybe we should run for Congress and show them how it’s done.
Not totally sure if Bichette has the arm for 3B (not a doubt, just absolutely no knowledge). If he doesn’t have a strong arm, Donovan can play 3B also.
Agree that a lot depends on whether Tommy’s ankle surgery will solve his problem and allow him to roam CF.
I think Max would be a terrible bench player. If they would actually do what you suggest, I would definitely trade him. He needs to get regular at bats in order to be at all effective.
And I can’t imagine a 2026 Dodger roster with both Kike and Miggy gone so whichever one they sign (probably Rojas) could take Max’s roster spot.
Pages has more upside in CF. Great improvement, and he’ll get better. He’ll stay in CF unless a guy like Buxton is acquired.
Edman won’t be getting a bionic ankle. He can share 2B with Kim, spell Mookie at SS and might also be Teo’s defensive replacement in LF.
Yes, I will vote for you. You had me when you included Max and trade in the same sentence.
Although we push and shove each other, we often windup finding something we can agree on.
Jeff, you’ve made a good case for signing Tucker, and a good case for not signing him. What is your preference, and what does your gut say will happen.
My preference would be to sign Tucker if the cost was around what Mookie got (approx. $360MM). I prefer less, but I do think there will be a lot of bidding on him. For me, he is not nearly in the value class as Bryce Harper (13 yrs – $330MM). Both Harper and Mookie were RF when they signed their big contracts. Tucker is not there.
Above Mookie not as much interested. The closer to $300MM the more interested I would be. At some point you cannot worry about who the best FA is and him getting overpaid. Sometimes they need to compare the FA to others even if the contracts were signed 5-7 years ago. Tucker is good, very good. But nobody is talking HOF about him.
As far as my gut, that is really hard. I have no idea what their budget might be. The payroll is down $87MM. There is no word as to whether the Dodgers were comfortable with the 2025 payroll figure. I also believe strongly that AF/BG/Walter to do not give a rip what other organizations think of the Dodgers. If they want him, they will sign him, even with deferrals.
If I am leaning, I am leaning in the direction that they will NOT sign him. Pages can play RF better than Tucker and has the bat that will succeed out there. They will be better situated with a glove first CF for two years, with Pages in RF and Teo in LF. When Teo’s contract is up, that should be the time that De Paula and Hope are ready, and Sirota for CF.
But I am an armchair GM on his 3rd Modelo.
The Guggenheim folk may not care about the luxury tax, but I wonder what the penalty will be for another mega-contract.
Thanks Jeff, I think the Dodgers FO has at least a Dozen plans, if they can get plan A at their price great if not they will go to B, then C, and so on. I’ve been a Tucker fan since he came into the league, so I’d love to see him come here, but many of the scenarios the guys come up with here could come to fruition, as we speak STB and Bumsrap are working on some trades, we’ll see how they do.😀
Bhagwan is coming
For only the chosen.
I would pass on Tucker. Sign Bader and use the money saved to improve our shaky bullpen. Tucker is a RF and we need a CF. Pages is adequate in CF but better in RF. And Teo is a DH playing the outfield. Trade Teo and sign either Miguel Andujar or Austin Hays to play LF.
At their ceiling, Andujar and Hays are not as good as Teo. I am still convinced that Teo never got back from his groin injury. IMO, he came back too early and got into some bad habits.
I like Andujar as a 4th OF, and I was hoping that the Dodgers traded for him last deadline. I have liked Hays since he was a Baltimore prospect. But for a contending team he is a 4th OF, who could be a regular for a 2nd tier team. He and Lux were the LF/DH platoon last year.
Mookie had his 2nd consecutive regressive year at the plate. What should the Dodgers do with Mookie?
I am not for trading Teo and replacing him with platoon reserve #4 OF. The Dodgers have one in Alex Call, and probably another in Ryan Ward.
You know what I would do with Mookie.
I agree with you about Teo. He wasn’t right for much of the year. Though he looked it, he’s not that old, 33. I think it could be the injury. How would we know? Some lose it more quickly than others. He’s owed a lot of money so I suspect the team will have patience with him.
I still like the idea of Tucker and Suárez. Also Bichette but don’t know he fits. Pages in center. Would be fine with Bader too, but I don’t believe they will do both outfielders. Don’t have an opinion on the others.
I would think the front office has some knowledge of what went on with Teo last year. If they can ascertain that Jeff’s injury scenario is valid, I would be fine with keeping him.
If more of his downward slope was due to age, I’d rather not keep him. Of course, that would also mean far fewer teams would be interested in trading for him.
He’s got the best smile in MLB. That should be worth something.
You’re not sure if Bichette fits. You don’t think putting him at 2B works?
“You’re not sure if Bichette fits. You don’t think putting him at 2B works?”
As I said, you know what I would do with Mookie.
Teo is owed nearly $50 million including the buyout. Some of that is deferred. How much would the Dodgers have to pay to dump him? It’s my opinion the Dodgers would be better served to help him get fit over the winter. 2.5 WAR and he earns his money. If healthy I think he can do that.
As yes, I forgot that you’ve made Mookie the 2B, therefore no room for Bichette unless they play him at SS or 3B, and I’m not sure, at this point, “if he fits” defensively long term at either of those positions.
Blake Snell is making his rounds. Today he and the trophy are at Sofi for Seattle-Rams
The Mariners and Dodgers each announced that Seattle has acquired left-hander Robinson Ortiz in exchange for minor league right-hander Tyler Gough. LA now has 38 places filled on its 40-man roster.
Well it finally happened. The best OF in the Dodgers organization (IMO). Eduardo Quintero, has been named the Dodgers top prospect going into 2026 by Baseball America. I mentioned last season that the one untouchable OF for me was Quintero, not De Paula or Hope, both very good prospects. I am working on 2026 prospects that should be out after Bear’s Part 2 of his series, Championship Season – A Look Back. The Dodgers need a bridge to Quintero or Sirota and I suppose that bridge could very well be Pages.
From everything I’ve read, Quintero was rising fast, so I was pleased to see this. I seem to recall that Quintero is from Mexico. Another Mexican star in LA would be fantastic for the Doyers.
In my fantasy high-risk deal for Buxton, I might include Hope as the bat in the pitching-rich package– if the Twins reject Ward and George.
This may sound silly, but Hope is built a bit like Kirby Puckett, who was beloved in the Twin Cities. Yes, I also think Teo in Boston would conjure fond memories of Big Papi. Big bat, big smile, big personality…
While Ward and George get dissed a lot–they rank about 7th and 8th among Dodger OF prospects–I think both might just need the right team to get a chance to succeed. In the unlikely event Ward doesn’t get dealt, I hope the Dodgers give him a fair chance in LF. Sometimes those late bloomers surprise people.
Or maybe three seasons of Buxton….
Zach Root with the suprise Top 10 ranking