Ex-Blue Jays infielder says Kyle Tucker eyed Toronto, but Dodgers’ offer won him over

For a third straight offseason the Toronto Blue Jays were right at the finish line for a top free agent star, only for that player to go to the Los Angeles Dodgers. It happened with Shohei Ohtani, it happened with Roki Sasaki and now it's happened with Kyle Tucker.

And maybe, the most disappointing part about all of this is the fact that in Tuckers case, he may have actually preferred Toronto, but money has a funny way of swaying people's minds.

Ex-Blue Jays infielder says Kyle Tucker eyed Toronto, but Dodgers’ offer won him over

Former Blue Jays infielder Whit Merrifield recently shared on the 6ix Inning Stretch Podcast a few tidbits that lean into the idea that Tucker was so very close to choosing the Blue Jays, up until he signed a four-year $240 million deal with the Dodgers. He told host Lindsay Dunn, "I don't know Kyle but I know people in his camp really well and they agreed to give us the exclusive if he signed with the Jays, they were going to let us break that news."

That's not the only information Merrifield revealed as he went on to say, "When he signed, his agent text me and he said, 'Kyle really wanted to go to Toronto. The Jays offered him ten years for $350 million, but they (Tucker) needed a little bit more based on his market and comparables and Toronto just wasn't willing to do more than $35 (million) a year."

Merrifield then admits that everyone has different values for every individual player and that the Toronto deal of $350 million was an incredible offer, but when the Dodgers countered with $60 million a season it was just too hard for Tucker to say no to that offer. While it won't make anyone feel better about the outcome, the fact is, the Blue Jays have always been steadfast in their evaluations and have rarely ever budged to the whims of the player.

The only time it seems that this front office felt they had to go over their comfort zone was during the contract extension with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who ended up getting a 14-year $500 million deal that officially kicks in this year. Before the deal was signed, GM Ross Atkins and the front office staff had said publicly that they were making very competitive offers to Guerrero. When the deal was signed they admitted they had to go out of their comfort zone to get the deal done.

And thank goodness they did it then. Imagine what Guerrero's price would have been had he been a free agent this offseason, coming off the kind of postseason run he just had. The Blue Jays were willing to have Guerrero and Tucker make right around $35 million each, per season, over the next decade and that feels like a big swing for this Blue Jays regime to make.

But once again, the Dodgers acted with reckless abandonment and threw an excessive amount of cash at a player that they knew nobody else would be willing to come close to matching.