I don’t begrudge any of the MLer’s for the money they are making, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think some guys aren’t worth the money, relative to their peers. Case in point, Kyle Tucker for $60m/year???

Without doing a deep dive, he didn’t have an epic walk year to warrant that kind of do re mi. Am I jealous of the Dodgers and do I hate Cub management for not forking over that money? Hell no! I have no idea how much better he’ll make the Dodgers or if he will actually earn the cash, but I know he didn’t perform that well with the Cubs, and it would preclude them from making other necessary additions.

As a friend pointed out, Tucker’s 2025 stats (22/73/.264 in 500 at-bats) weren’t all that dissimilar from Lenyn Sosa (22/75/.264 in 518 at-bats). Nobody is going to confuse the two players, but the numbers are eerily similar.

Obviously, only the Dodgers were in the ballpark, and we’ll never know what exactly every other team offered. The media and third party speculators would float numbers and years without any basis in fact. None of this is to excuse any particular team for not going all in and some teams will overpay for the next guy on the market (Bellinger, Realmuto, or Bichette, Valdez to name a few). The Mets, Jays, Red Sox, Phillies, Yankees, Mariners and Cubs have shown they are willing to spend big bucks, but maybe not big enough bucks. Everyone else is playing in another league.

While reading about the Reds, three-team trade involving the mysterious, oft-traded Gavin Lux (not short for Deluxe), a writer mentioned that the trade would ultimately save the Reds $2-3 million which could be later allocated for other talent. Does anyone notice a disparity? Does anyone think Terry Francona might have been misled when he signed on to manage Cincy? Or did he really want to work at Filene’s against the big boys at Bloomingdales? I know it’ a weak analogy, but deal with it.

If the Dodgers don’t three-peat or improve by 20 games, will the signing be seen as a failure or failure lite? In critical markets like Philly, Boston and New York, fans and media would be marching with pitchforks, and fans in Chicago would like to think they’d be that mad. As a whole, we were just so happy to crack 90 wins and rejoin postseason baseball for 30 minutes (and praying it wasn’t a one-year aberration) that nobody was that mad at Tucker or management. Heck, some Eagle fans would gladly toss their head coach in the Schuylkill River after they lost last week, a year after winning the Super Bowl.

For the next nine months or so, we can all argue the merits of the signings and which teams won the offseason. No matter where you stand on the trade, I’ve distracted you from Bears-Rams for 37 seconds.

You’re welcome!