Did Kyle Tucker Signing With The Dodgers Break Baseball?

The Dodgers now have an absurd $413 million payroll, which is the largest in the history of baseball; the Mets are second at $317 million, according to Spotrac.

It gets to a point, though, as Los Angeles now has eight contracts on their books exceeding $100 million. To compare, the Marlins’ payroll is $100 million in total.

The Dodgers contracts include Shohei Ohtani’s $700 million deal, Mookie Betts’ $365 million contract, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s $325 million agreement, and Tucker’s now $240 million contract. Los Angeles also has Blake Snell’s $182 million deal, Freddie Freeman’s $162 million contract, Will Smith’s $140 million agreement, and Tyler Glasnow’s $136 million contract.

The Dodgers are such a well-oiled machine that they also boast one of the best farm systems in Major League Baseball. Los Angeles has seven top 100 prospects, including 13th-ranked Josue De Paula, 20th-ranked Zyhir Hope, and 34th-ranked Eduardo Quintero. The Dodgers also have 45th-ranked Alex Freeland, 64th-ranked Mike Sirota, 98th-ranked Jackson Ferris, and 100th-ranked Emil Morales.

A lot of credit for all of this has to be given to the President of Baseball Operations, Andrew Friedman. Friedman consistently churned out great rosters, develops well, and also has the luxury of a great owner to sign off on all of this.

Every owner is filthy rich, but it helps that Los Angeles can quickly make all of this money back since their fan base is so passionate, and most importantly, they win World Series in the process.

Looking at the Dodgers lineup, it’s basically an All-Star team at this point, but they’ve also been elite for so long that why wouldn’t players want to join them?

Los Angeles has a current lineup of Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, Tucker, Smith, Max Muncy, Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman, and Andy Pages, according to Roster Resource. The Dodgers also have a 6-man rotation of Yamamoto, Snell, Glasnow, Ohtani, Emmet Sheehan, and Roki Sasaki, genuinely hysterical.

The scary part is that, with this farm system and owner, Los Angeles could theoretically still trade for someone like Tarik Skubal or sign someone like Bo Bichette.

A team this stacked really went out there and got a Top 15 at minimum hitter in the sport in Tucker, who’s sporting a 147 wRC+ since 2023, according to Fangraphs. The Dodgers got a close to five-tool player that doesn’t strike out, and already comes with a championship pedigree, because why not?

The End Of My Kyle Tucker Rant

It’s astonishing how the rich continue to get richer. No rumor about them sounds insane anymore, and they physically can’t be stopped outside of a potential 2027 lockout that fans are now clamoring for.

At the end of the day, people will say that Tucker took the easy way out and compare this to Kevin Durant signing with the Golden State Warriors and joining a modern-day dynasty.

In the end, the Mets get outbid for Tucker. The Toronto Blue Jays also miss out, as they were reportedly the only team willing to go as high as ten years for him, according to Passan.

This might lead to a lockout in 2027 as some penny-pinching owners will grow irate at where the league is currently. Some are going to ask for a salary cap, which is going to be a tough task. While others are going to ask for a salary floor, which will also be tough to agree to.

Personally, I’m stuck in the middle here as we can admit that not every team can spend as the Dodgers can because of their TV deal, but these are all billionaires at the end of the day.

Some owners genuinely hate the idea of spending money and lose their homegrown players, which is absolutely gut-wrenching for the fans. Then there’s Los Angeles who can theoretically get whoever it wants, no matter what their payroll is.

It feels inevitable that the Dodgers are going to win their third straight World Series, but it’s baseball, so who knows at the end of the day. Los Angeles has had stacked teams for a while, but they haven’t won it every single year until recently, and the COVID-shortened 2020 season.

The target remains on the Dodgers’ backs, and if anyone can take them down in the postseason, it would be even sweeter to send home such a Goliath like this.

Current MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s contract is up in 2029, and he’s stated that he will retire after that, so let’s see what happens before he exits.