This story was excerpted from Sonja Chen’s Dodgers Beat e-newsletter. To learn the complete e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it repeatedly in your inbox.
The offseason is not actually in full swing till the Dodgers make waves on the open market.
One month after making an enormous splash by signing nearer Edwin Díaz on the Winter Conferences, the Dodgers poured it on by agreeing to phrases with star outfielder Kyle Tucker on a four-year, $240 million contract, a supply informed MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand on Thursday. The highest expertise available on the market is coming to L.A. but once more, as has been the case these previous few offseasons.
This is a breakdown of what the Tucker deal means for the Dodgers:
What are the complete particulars of Tucker’s contract, and the way a lot will he price the Dodgers in complete?A supply confirmed the next to Feinsand: Tucker’s contract consists of opt-outs after the second and third years. There’s a $64 million signing bonus and $30 million in deferred cash.
Tucker comes at a further price as a result of he turned down a qualifying supply from the Cubs initially of the offseason. Díaz additionally declined a QO. For a Aggressive Stability Tax payor just like the Dodgers, signing a number of free brokers with a QO connected implies that the crew will lose its second-, third-, fifth- and sixth-highest picks within the upcoming Draft, in addition to $1 million from its worldwide bonus pool.
“I imply, it is an actual price, so attempt to bake it in and issue it into the choice,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman mentioned after the crew agreed to phrases with Díaz throughout the Winter Conferences. “You by no means need to be flippant about this, however we now have a very robust and deep farm system. And so it a minimum of helps mitigate it some, but it surely’s an actual price related.”
What would possibly the Dodgers lineup seem like with Tucker?Irrespective of which configuration supervisor Dave Roberts chooses, he can hardly go flawed. Tucker primarily hit within the two-hole final 12 months with the Cubs, however the Dodgers might choose to drop him all the way down to hold their prime three of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. At full power, here is how that might look:
DH Shohei OhtaniSS Mookie Betts1B Freddie FreemanRF Kyle TuckerC Will SmithLF Teoscar Hernández3B Max MuncyCF Andy Pages2B Tommy Edman
Alternatively, the Dodgers might select to evenly disperse their hitters by handedness. That would have Tucker batting as little as fifth. He hasn’t began that low within the order since 2023, however that speaks to the depth of this lineup.
DH Ohtani (L)SS Betts (R)1B Freeman (L)C Smith (R)RF Tucker (L)LF Hernández (R)3B Muncy (L)CF Pages (R)2B Edman (S)
How does Tucker have an effect on the Dodgers’ outfield image?It brings some readability to the Dodgers’ outfield alignment. Tucker ought to take over in proper area, shifting Hernández to left and maintaining Pages in middle. Tucker didn’t grade out as an elite proper fielder final 12 months with minus-2 outs above common, however he needs to be an enchancment over Hernández, who was price minus-9 OAA, fourth-worst amongst certified proper fielders.
As a result of the Dodgers’ 40-man roster is full, they might want to make a corresponding transfer to make Tucker’s acquisition official. In the event that they select to create area from their present outfield depth, then fellow left-handed-hitting outfielders Michael Siani and Ryan Ward may very well be probably the most logical choices to be on the transfer. In any other case, the Dodgers have a surplus of pitching depth on the 40-man roster, however they are not essentially desperate to subtract from it.
How would possibly the Tucker deal have an effect on the Dodgers’ prime prospects?L.A.’s farm system is wealthy in outfielders, together with 4 of its prime 5 prospects, in response to MLB Pipeline: Josue De Paula (No. 1), Zyhir Hope (No. 2), Eduardo Quintero (No. 3) and Mike Sirota (No. 5). Lots of the outfield prospects are projected to be MLB-ready within the subsequent two years, however there is no clear spot for them as issues stand.
The best-ranked outfielders within the system have but to achieve Triple-A, so that they have loads of improvement forward of them. The shorter-term cope with Tucker may very well be the bridge to when these gamers are able to be on a regular basis large leaguers, even when he opts out. It might additionally restrict their possibilities to get their ft moist within the Majors, however alternatives are inclined to come up despite groups’ best-laid plans.
What else would possibly the Dodgers do that offseason?With Tucker within the fold, the Dodgers not have any obtrusive wants. They will all the time enhance on the margins, and they’re going to absolutely act in the appropriate state of affairs. As of now, they seem like a crew that may make a authentic bid to three-peat as World Collection champions.
