Kyle Tucker apparently has to choose between contract length or a high average annual value (AAV).
With the top free agent expected to reach an agreement as early as Thursday, according to The Postthe outfielder appears to be choosing between two different contract types.
The Mets have offered a staggering $50 million per season for a four-year contract. The Post confirmedwhile ESPN’s Jeff Passan told Sportsnet on Wednesday that the Blue Jays are the only team that has shown a willingness to “potentially” offer as many as 10 years to the Cubs star.
The Dodgers, as they seemingly do with every free agent, lurk in the shadows, likely more in the Mets’ realm of a low-year, high-AAV offer based on their history.
It has created an interesting market for the soon-to-be 29-year-old.
“The market may be almost working backwards at this point where it started off well, that was the expectation, that was the hope, but it didn’t quite work out the way he wanted,” Passan told Sportsnet. “Now he goes back down there, gets the AAV going, gets guys interested and then all of a sudden all bets are off.”
There was talk of a $400 million to $500 million deal when he hit free agency, but it doesn’t appear that is on the table because otherwise you would assume he would have signed such a deal.
That leads to the logical thought that the Blue Jays’ greater AAV offering may be lacking compared to the Mets and possibly the Dodgers, but still provide long-term security.
Some players are willing to bet on themselves and have seen it pay off, like Pete Alonso, while others may worry about a market at age 31 where they didn’t get the offers they wanted when they were younger.
Any calculation, of course, takes into account the idea that Tucker could bank around $200 million — using the Mets’ offer as a guide — to calculate a projected figure.
In a hypothetical situation where the Mets offered four years, $200 million and the Blue Jays proposed 10 years, $300 million, Tucker would weigh whether he could land another $100 million deal entering his age-33 season.
However, it’s hard to imagine him getting another six guaranteed years like the Blue Jays’ offer when he couldn’t get that deal now.
“In theory, he could go back on the market as a 31-year-old. It’s a little different, that’s the thing, it’s a little different when you’re older,” Passan said. “You would think that more teams would honestly be interested in a guy who is still in his 20s and is the caliber that he is if he reaches free agency, but sometimes the markets move in very mysterious ways.”
Passan noted that the weak free-agent classes over the next two years could play a role in how teams operate in these final weeks of free agency.
Cody Bellinger is also still available, but the Yankees are the team most linked to him and they are at an impasse over contract length.
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