Dodgers Left-Right-Left Lineup Crowned MLB's Lords After Kyle Tucker Signing

The Los Angeles Dodgers made the most significant signing of the MLB's offseason so far on Thursday night, inking Kyle Tucker to a four-year, $240 million deal. Dave Roberts' bid to "ruin baseball" is seemingly in its final stages, with a 2027 lockout feeling even closer after the Dodgers did the unthinkable.

En route to a potential three-peat next October, USA Today's Gabe Lacques believes LA's killer "left-right-left drill team," which would see Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Tucker, Will Smith, Max Muncey as a historic 1-6, would not have an equal in 2026.

"Tucker's four-year, $240 million agreement with the Dodgers creates a gauntlet opposing pitchers must run, a task equally difficult for starters as well as the late-inning specialists. Simply, no club can match up with the Dodgers' left-right-left drill team that begins with four-time MVP Shohei Ohtani and will run more than a half-dozen deep with All-Stars," Lacques wrote.

The Chicago Cubs were long expected to lose Tucker. The Dodgers were always a strong suitor, given Tucker's agent, Casey Close of Excel Sports Management, facilitating Freeman's deal before the 2022 season following the Atlanta Braves' 2021 World Series win.

Shohei Ohtani's Deferred Payment Paying Dividends

MLB teams are not supposed to be this good. That the Dodgers pulled this off further proves the genius of Ohtani having his payments deferred.

Ohtani and his representation challenged LAD to make him a champion, since the crosstown rival Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim did nothing of the sort. The Dodgers have delivered in unfathomable ways because Mark Walter loves winning and doesn't mind footing the bill to do it.

Their lineup looks unstoppable, but so does a rotation that has Gavin Stone and River Ryan on stand-by, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ohtani, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Roki Sasaki, and Emmet Sheehan in a six-man rotation.

In addition to one of the best lineups ever, the Dodgers have a pitching staff that has MLB.com's Brian Murphy asking, "Could Dodgers' 2026 rotation be the best in club history?"

Los Angeles is to the MLB now what the New York Yankees were a century ago. Shohei is "The Babe," Freeman is Lou Gehrig, Yamamoto and, truthfully, any number of arms, could be Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt.

It's history in the making. This team didn't need Tucker to be historic, but now their seemingly limitless ceiling has elevated even higher.