hicago Cubs star Kyle Tucker will soon have the biggest spotlight of any player in Major League Baseball.
For the rest of the season, Tucker will be under the same pressure every standout player feels to spark a deep playoff run for his team. But once the season ends, Tucker expects to land the biggest deal in a very solid class of free agents.
The Cubs, for their part, should at least be competitive for Tucker. But their competition will assuredly be fierce, which makes it difficult to put a dollar amount on the eventual bidding war.
On Thursday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan projected that Tucker’s deal would land in the $400 million range. He also identified the San Francisco Giants as a top potential threat to lure the three-time All-Star away.
“The number (for Tucker) is going to be big — likely in the $400 million range,” Passan wrote. “The San Francisco Giants need a complement to Rafael Devers in the middle of the lineup. Others, including the Cubs, will be in the mix. The market will find Tucker, as it eventually does with the best players in every class.”
The Giants should worry Chicago as a threat, because even after trading for Devers, it’s clear that they need more firepower to compete in the loaded National League West. They’ve also been in on free agents the Cubs never sniffed due of the price tags, from Aaron Judge to Shohei Ohtani to Corbin Burnes.
Currently, the Cubs’ $226 million tax payroll narrowly outstrips the Giants at $215 million, according to Spotrac. That doesn’t necessarily indicate that the Cubs will be willing to outspend the Giants for Tucker, though, as San Francisco has by all accounts tried to field a larger payroll in recent years.
The other side of the coin? Perhaps the fact that the Giants have missed on so many notable free agents, particularly position players, means Tucker will be spooked by the prospect of trying to hit at Oracle Park.
It’s still early to determine favorites in any free agents’ sweepstakes, but there’s little doubt the Cubs should treat the Giants as a serious competitor here.
