Four Burning Questions After Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette’s Landscape-Altering Contracts

The Tucker and Bichette contracts will have ripple effects across MLB.

Tucker landed with the back-to-back defending-champion Dodgers. | David Banks-Imagn Images

The Dodgers shook the landscape of baseball again on Thursday night, agreeing to terms with consensus top free agent Kyle Tucker on a four-year contract worth $240 million. Then, the first domino to fall post-Tucker was the next best available hitter on the board, Bo Bichette, who landed with the Mets on a three-year, $126 million deal the next day. Combined, the two deals have massive ramifications, both in the short-term and far-reaching.

Here are four major questions that still need answering in the wake of these seismic contracts.

Do the Dodgers have any weaknesses?

The Dodgers have done it again.

Los Angeles, already a fully operational baseball Death Star fresh off of winning its second straight World Series, entered the offseason with few needs and seemingly little intention of making a splash. Well, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has flipped that narrative on its head, as he went out and addressed arguably the Dodgers’ biggest—and perhaps only—needs at closer and in left field. The Dodgers twice outbid the National League-rival Mets, first for the two-time NL Reliever of the Year in Diaz and then again for the four-time All-Star and World Series champion in Tucker.

Consider this. The Dodgers ranked inside the top-10 in Wins Above Replacement at every single position except for two: relief pitching and the outfield. In 2025, the Dodgers’ bullpen, burdened by the heaviest workload in baseball amid injuries up and down the starting rotation, blew 25 saves, the 10th-most in MLB, and posted just a 4.27 ERA. Enter Diaz, who racked up 28 saves, tied for the seventh-most in MLB, while posting the second-best ERA and strikeout rate among all qualified relievers. So unreliable was Los Angeles’s ninth inning situation that manager Dave Roberts in the postseason turned to rookie pitcher Rōki Sasaki, whose struggles with injury and inconsistency resulted in the Dodgers tweaking his pitching mechanics midseason, to shut the door in the ninth inning. Sasaki acquitted himself well, but the ninth inning will no longer be keeping Roberts up late at night in 2026.

Dodgers left fielders posted just a .703 OPS in ‘25, good for 17th in MLB. Michael Conforto, who played over 1,000 innings in left field and appeared in 138 games for the Dodgers, posted a 79 OPS+. Tucker produced a 143 OPS+, meaning he was 43 percent better than what a league average hitter would have produced—and 64 percent better than Conforto. Defensively, Conforto was among the worst left fielders in baseball, while Tucker was above average. Do the Dodgers have any weaknesses? Imagine the Death Star without a fatal flaw infamously exploited by Luke Skywalker, and that’s what the ‘26 Dodgers—barring an unforeseen injury—look like.

Could Tucker's Dodgers deal lead to a bidding war for Cody Bellinger?

Perhaps no one enjoyed the events of Thursday night and Friday afternoon more than hard-driving agent Scott Boras, who represents star outfielder Cody Bellinger, the best available position player left with Tucker—and now Bichette—off the board. Bellinger, whose market included upwards of eight teams if you believe Boras’s pun-filled ballad from earlier this winter, has dwindled a bit, but is still headlined by the wealthy Yankees. New York, at something of an impasse with Bellinger in negotiations, has reportedly offered him a five-year deal worth at least $30 million annually, but the 2019 NL MVP’s value is rapidly appreciating.

With Tucker headed to Los Angeles, New York may now have competition, both intradivisional and geographic, in its quest to retain Bellinger. The Blue Jays didn’t particularly need Tucker, but his approach to hitting was such a perfect fit for Toronto’s contact-oriented lineup that the club pushed hard for the talented outfielder. Bellinger has strong bat-to-ball skills, doesn’t often strike out and would be a defensive upgrade in left field for the Blue Jays. Add in the fact that Toronto would be burgeoning its own prospects while diminishing its rivals, and there’s the recipe for a hot pursuit from the reigning American League champions.

Then, there’s the Mets. Even with Bichette in tow, New York could still use a left fielder—and its imperfect Jorge Polanco solution at first base beckons for the versatility of Bellinger, who just so happens to play both positions well. We’ve seen the Mets outbid the Yankees before. If the team from Queens believes Bellinger to be a good fit, we could see history repeat itself.

The Yankees could find themselves in a bidding war for Bellinger, one Boras will be watching with dollar signs in his eyes.

Where do the Blue Jays rank in the AL East after missing out on Tucker and Bichette?

After seven seasons in Toronto, Bichette is heading to Queens to play for the Mets. | Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images

The dust has settled and arguably the two top free agents have come off the board within the last 24 hours. The Blue Jays, at one point the favorite for Tucker and the home of Bichette for the last seven seasons, landed neither.

Where does that leave Toronto in the highly-competitive AL East? Even without a splashy Tucker or Bichette signing, the Blue Jays have hardly rested on their laurels after narrowly losing the World Series to the Dodgers. Toronto added to an already-capable starting rotation, signing frontline starter Dylan Cease and adding Cody Ponce for additional depth. The bullpen got a boost with the addition of submariner Tyler Rogers. And the lineup hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Blue Jays’ brass, who spent $60 million to bring in infielder Kazuma Okamoto, a six-time All-Star in the Nippon Professional Baseball League.

Make no mistake, the Blue Jays will have plenty of competition as the club looks to defend its division title. The Yankees, who finished second to the Blue Jays and were eliminated by the club in the AL Division Series, haven’t made any needle-moving transactions, opting instead to add rotation depth via free agency and a trade while retaining breakout outfielder Trent Grisham. But New York, which still trots out an Aaron Judge-led lineup and eventually, a Gerrit Cole-led rotation, should be near the top of the division once again.

The Red Sox have been busy, boosting the lineup with the acquisition of Willson Contreras while completely remaking the middle of its starting rotation by importing Sonny Gray, Johan Oviedo and Ranger Suarez behind ace Garret Crochet. Boston, a mix of rising young stars and capable veterans, is a dangerous team.

The Orioles still possess much of the core that helped lead the team to 91 wins two years ago. Baltimore added to its powerful lineup by signing slugger Pete Alonso and trading for outfielder Taylor Ward. Then, it boosted its pitching staff by re-signing Zach Eflin, acquiring Shane Baz and inking free agent reliever Ryan Helsley to a deal. With a first-year manager in Craig Albernaz, it’s difficult to project the Orioles as division winners. But the club also can’t be discounted.

Then, there’s the Rays, who have spent the offseason bolstering its farm system with the trades of veterans Brandon Lowe and Baz. Always a thorn in the side of its rivals, Tampa Bay has mastered the ability to retool for the future while still winning on the field. 

With competition on all fronts, will the Blue Jays, buoyed by a busy offseason and hardened by its ‘25 postseason run, have everything they need to repeat as division champs?

Will the Tucker contract push MLB closer to a salary cap or lockout?

As the Dodgers’ payroll soared to unimaginable heights—north of $400 million—and the deferred payments—over $1 billion—continued to stack up, the common refrain heard from rival owners, pundits and fans was that the Dodgers were ruining baseball.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, in a mic drop moment undoubtedly meant to fire up the fans, poked fun at that narrative after Los Angeles won its second straight NL pennant.

“Before the season started, they said, ‘The Dodgers are ruining baseball,” Roberts exclaimed. 'Let’s get four more wins [in the World Series] and really ruin baseball. Let's go!' ”

But for someone directly benefiting from the Dodgers’ lavishness, Roberts has a surprising opinion on the state of competitive imbalance in baseball. Fresh off of a second straight championship, Roberts in December said he’d be “all right” with a salary cap as long as it came with a salary floor to incentivize smaller market teams to spend. That the manager of the team exploiting MLB’s flawed competitive balance tax system with its gargantuan spending is in favor of limiting skyrocketing player salaries tells you all you need to know about the current state of affairs.

The Dodgers aren’t the problem. They’re simply magnifying MLB’s warts by pushing the constraints of what’s possible in a defective structure. Only making matters worse are the too-lenient penalties for repeat offenders of the luxury tax, and the slow death of the regional-sports-network template that was theoretically supposed to even the financial playing field via revenue sharing.

Things have gotten so dire that Rockies owner Dick Monfort, whose club has the ninth-lowest payroll, and Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner, whose team boasts the fifth-highest, have both cried foul about the unfairness.

But the beat goes on, as evidenced by the Dodgers’ Tucker deal. Could it push baseball towards a salary cap? If so, a lockout may be inevitable, for the owners seem in favor of a salary cap—and the players are firmly against it.

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