I genuinely have no words. I am in utter disbelief that the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team that has won the chip the last two seasons, have signed the premier bat on the free-agent market for an outstanding cost of $240 million for four years. So much for wishful thinking that this guy could come to the Mets and form one of the strongest outfield duos in the game with Juan Soto. To think that this guy stated before that he doesn’t want to be the center of attention, and everyone speculated that this meant he wouldn’t want to sign with the Dodgers, only for him to sign a record-breaking deal and become the highest-paid outfielder in terms of AAV.

The Dodgers have given out over $2.25 billion in contracts over the last three offseasons. That is more than the total value of 17 MLB franchises.

Let’s dive into this, because clearly the only way to deal with such a terrible act for all of baseball is to take a deep breath, cope, and pray that some sort of bad luck strikes this damn good team. From the get-go, this team has six MVP winners, one Rookie of the Year, and multiple World Series victors, but more fascinating is that the top three of the Dodgers’ biggest acquisitions are players who have already won a championship: Mookie Betts (2018), Freddie Freeman (2021), and Kyle Tucker (2022). Now Tucker gets the chance to win a second ring in his career and a third consecutive ring for this behemoth of a team.

Talk about buying World Series rings. Nearly the majority of the Dodgers roster was already a high-leverage player, either acquired via trade or free agency. Out of their starting nine, only Will Smith and Andy Pages are homegrown stars. The rest are due to the deep pockets of the Guggenheim corporation. At least George Steinbrenner had some players he developed in the farm instead of signing literally every great player. Their top four—Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, and Tucker—can all arguably be considered top-10 players.

Unbelievable.

Let’s flash back to last night before the tyrants of LA once again took over baseball. The race for Kyle Tucker consisted of the Blue Jays, Mets, and Dodgers. The Blue Jays were said to have a long-term deal exceeding 10 years. The Mets and Dodgers both led with short-term contracts. The Blue Jays’ offer was reportedly 10 years, $370–400 million, while the Mets’ final offer was $220 million for four years, an AAV of $55 million. The Mets also offered a $75 million signing bonus, which was $11 million more than the Dodgers’ signing bonus.

But the offer Tucker accepted was the Dodgers’: four years, $240 million guaranteed, with opt-outs after Years 2 and 3 and a $64 million signing bonus. Of course, $30 million was deferred, bringing the net value to $57.1 million per yearafter deferrals.

It is still an unholy amount of money for a player who has only reached the 150+ game plateau twice in his career and hasn’t crossed that mark since 2023. Since then, he has played 78 games and 136 games last season, which is certainly not enough to merit such an unprompted amount of money. Kyle Tucker now makes more money yearly than Juan Soto or Aaron Judge, both of whom are extremely worthy of their contracts and can produce for more than 150 games consistently.

He waited out the market until he found a deal worth signing. After realizing he would not receive a 10+ year deal with similar AAV to Guerrero or Soto, he decided to take a shorter deal—one that made it seem like the Mets were one of the stars of the offseason, only for him to bolt. He used the Mets and Uncle Steve to his advantage to raise the Dodgers’ offer and ran with it. You can admit everyone is money-hungry—it’s human nature—but when you walk away with essentially $121 million in one season (salary plus signing bonus), that is highway robbery.

I cannot even fathom this being the third player to negotiate with the Mets and turn his back on us to sign with the Dodgers, the others being Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Trevor Bauer—though in the latter case, I’m glad Bauer signed elsewhere.

These are the Dodgers contracts worth more than $100 million:

Shohei Ohtani: 10 years, $700,000,000
Mookie Betts: 12 years, $365,000,000
Yoshinobu Yamamoto: 12 years, $325,000,000
Kyle Tucker: 4 years, $240,000,000
Blake Snell: 5 years, $182,000,000
Freddie Freeman: 6 years, $162,000,000
Will Smith: 10 years, $140,000,000
Tyler Glasnow: 5 years, $136,562,500

Eight out of nine of these guys are not homegrown. Whatever.

Let’s talk about why Kyle Tucker received such a high contract. Tucker has accumulated 27.3 WAR in his eight-year career and averages around 5.2 WAR per season. He broke out in 2021 when he posted 5.3 WAR in 140 games for the Houston Astros:
149 hits, 83 runs, 30 home runs, 92 RBIs, 53 walks, with a slash line of .294/.359/.557, a .917 OPS, and a 147 OPS+.

His peak came in 2024, when he accumulated 4.7 WAR in just 78 games. He was on pace to win MVP and put up historic numbers: 56 runs, 80 hits, 23 home runs, 49 RBIs, 11 stolen bases, 56 walks, and a slash line of .289/.408/.585, a .993 OPS, and a 179 OPS+.

Last year was still amazing: 4.6 WAR, 133 hits, 91 runs, 22 home runs, 73 RBIs, 87 walks, and a slash line of .266/.377/.464, an .841 OPS, and a 143 OPS+. He has four All-Star appearances, two Silver Sluggers, one Gold Glove, and two top-20 MVP finishes, and somehow he is worth $60 million a year. Great.

Baseball is entering a dangerous zone. With the Collective Bargaining Agreement expiring next year, we are on pace for a lockout. The CBA is the agreement between the players’ union and the owners that governs the terms and conditions of baseball. With it expiring, tensions are inevitable. The Dodgers’ actions have only accelerated this imbalance and exposed how ugly and unbalanced the league has become.

I get that the highest tax threshold is labeled the Cohen Tax after Steve Cohen, but the Mets are not the problem. Yes, we signed Soto, and yes, we are in the market for elite players, but our return rate is nowhere near the Dodgers’. The Dodgers are the real issue and need to be stopped. If that means canceling a season, then so be it.

What is even the point of watching baseball if the Dodgers are simply going to win it all and outbid every free agent? Players are getting greedy because they know teams like the Dodgers and Steve Cohen will pay anything. These bidding wars are senseless, and no one wins except the team that acts fastest and spends the most. These players are not worth these flashy deals, but agents sell them as icons who “need” luxury contracts.

Baseball has lost its wings, and it is time for major change.