Tuck Off
Morning Dose: Friday, January 16
☀️ Good Morning:
Citi Field is modeled after Ebbets Field.
Fans enter the Jackie Robinson Rotunda to reach their seats.
The team wears blue in honor of dem bums.
The Mets want to be the Dodgers East.
They are still what is left behind in favor of sunny California.
Once again, the Dodgers end up with the prized free agent everyone else wanted, signing Kyle Tucker to a jaw-dropping four-year, $240 million contract.
Steve Cohen is the richest owner in baseball. His team’s payroll is currently $100 million lower than that team in LA.
😢 I’ve written too many of these newsletters this offseason. Trying to turn bad news into something poetic like Zach Bryan. In the age of social media, there is nothing worse as a sports fan than constantly scrolling news feeds when a star free agent is close to deciding, and blind hope has clouded your judgment, making you believe in something that really you should have never believed in, only for the worst possible outcome to happen.
We’ve all waited by the phone for that special someone to call in high school. We are supposed to be past that point in our lives. And there I was on Thursday, checking to make sure there wasn’t another Verizon outage like when I would check for a dial tone on my corded phone as a teenager, only to realize Abby, the girl I had a crush on since 4th grade, was never going to call, she was already talking to my friend, the football player.
They don’t call us diehard fans for nothing. It’s an emotional experience following a baseball team. While I hope this newsletter helps put things in perspective with objective analysis, and I will try to offer up some next, there’s no escaping the emotions of being a Mets fan right now.
📰 ABOVE THE FOLD
⇢ TUCK AND RUN
Kyle Tucker is joining the Evil Empire on an insane four-year, $240 million deal that only has $30 million deferred. The Net Present Value (NPV) of the contract will put his AAV around $57 million, making him the highest earner in the sport on an annual NPV basis. He has opt outs after Years 2 and 3.
When healthy, Tucker is one of the five best offensive players in the sport. A marquee offensive talent of his ilk isn’t slated to hit the market again until 2029. No wonder the Dodgers decided to pounce.
LA needed an outfielder more than people realize, with Alex Call and Ryan Ward the platoon options in left before this signing. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Teoscar Hernandez are all entering their twilight years. This could be the final offseason the Dodgers can spend like crazy before a new CBA changes the rules (perhaps, in part, because of how crazy they are spending now).
Meanwhile, Tucker creates a path to earn as much as some projected he would on a long-term deal by eventually bridging together multiple deals. And he joins a Dodgers team where he doesn’t have to be the face of the franchise, something that multiple reports suggest was important to him.
In short, we should have never believed Tucker was signing anywhere else.
🍎 COUNTER-OFFER: The Mets weren’t messing around. They made a competitive bid to try to convince Tucker to play in New York. Their final offer reportedly ending up at four-years, $220 million, with no deferrals, opt outs in Years 2 and 3, and slightly more front-loaded than what he agreed to with the Dodgers, including a $75 million signing bonus (compared to the $64 million one he got).
