Inside The Cubs

Why Chicago Cubs' Bitter NL Foe Is Kyle Tucker's Top Free Agency Destination

Chicago Cubs fans are hoping Kyle Tucker signs with any team but this one in free agency.
Oct 2, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker (30) is greeted in the dugout after scoring against the San Diego Padres during game three of the Wildcard round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images
Oct 2, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker (30) is greeted in the dugout after scoring against the San Diego Padres during game three of the Wildcard round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images | David Banks-Imagn Images

If Kyle Tucker isn't going to re-sign with the Chicago Cubs upon becoming an unrestricted free agent this offseason, Cubs fans would surely hope that he joins a team where they would have to face Tucker as little as possible.

The best options in this regard would be some American League team, perhaps one in the East or West Coast that rarely makes trips to Wrigley Field. The worst option would be for Tucker to remain in the NL Central; perhaps joining the Cincinnati Reds or, even worse, joining the Milwaukee Brewers, who just eliminated Chicago from the 2025 MLB playoffs.

The team that most of the baseball community would most hope Tucker doesn't join is the Los Angeles Dodgers. This is not only because the Dodgers are defending World Series champions (and the favorites to repeat this year), but because they already have an insanely talented roster that surely doesn't need Tucker.

Not to mention that the Dodgers are in play for every top free agent every offseason, and end up signing many of them. And adding Tucker to the middle of their lineup would make this formidable team even that much more difficult to face.

Chicago Cubs outfielder Kyle Tucker (30) celebrates after a double on August 30, 2025
Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

Dodgers Listed as Kyle Tucker's Top Free Agency Destination

Not only do the Dodgers essentially have bottomless pockets and an extraordinary track record of success over the past decade or so, but everybody who plays for the team gives a glowing review of how the entire organization is run.

In other words, Los Angeles is where players want to be. And it also seems like King Tucker's most likely home next season, with Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter calling the Dodgers Tucker's top free agency landing spot in an October 13 article.

As good as the Dodgers have been this offseason, they didn't get consistent offensive production from left field, as the team's collective .702 OPS from that position during the regular season was 17th in MLB.

Of course, Tucker played primarily right field for Chicago in 2025. But he's athletic and talented enough to move to the other side of the outfield if Los Angeles wants him to, or they could keep him in right field and move Teoscar Hernández to left field.

It's hard to imagine that the Dodgers won't actively try to sign Tucker this offseason, and it's hard to imagine that he won't be interested in joining such a successful franchise. But Cubs fans are surely hoping that he ends up somewhere else.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Boxing, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.