Reason revealed for Kyle Tucker spurning Blue Jays.
The Toronto Blue Jays were heavily interested in Kyle Tucker this offseason.
Toronto hosted Tucker on a visit as the star hitter had mutual interest in the team. The Blue Jays had offered him a long-term deal, but the Los Angeles Dodgers came in and offered Tucker a four-year, $240 million deal, which he took.
Following Tucker’s introduction by the Dodgers, former Blue Jays infielder Whit Merrifield revealed the outfielder agent texted him and told him the reason why he spurned Toronto.
“His agent texted me and was like, ‘Hey, Kyle really wanted to go to Toronto,’” Merrifield said on the 6ix Inning Stretch podcast. “The Jays offered him ten years for ($350 million), which ended up coming out. They needed, I felt like they needed a little bit more based on Kyle and his market and comparables. Toronto just wasn’t willing to do more than ($35 million) a year.
“Everyone has a value for different players. Toronto felt that his value was ($35 million) a year for ten years, which is an incredible offer. The Dodgers came in and said about ($60 million) a year. It’s hard to say no to that.”
It’s disappointing news for Blue Jays fans if it’s accurate, as Toronto likely only needed to spend a bit more money on him. But, Toronto wasn’t willing to go higher than Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s AAV, which led to Tucker signing with the Dodgers.
Tucker is a four-time MLB All-Star.
Dodgers GM Explains Tucker Negotiation
Los Angeles came in at the end to land Tucker, as it appeared the Blue Jays and New York Mets were the front-runners.
Dodgers’ president of baseball Andrew Friedman said the team started lower in negotiations but went all-in on their offer to ensure they landed the marquee free agent.
“Obviously we started lower,” Friedman said. “I think when we’ve seen these shorter-term, higher AAV deals, I don’t think they’ve ever come when they also had a really long, significant deal. Not that I can remember. Usually guys take those shorter-term deals because the longer-term deal hasn’t materialized, so it’s a chance to kind of reset and go back out to the market. He had that opportunity.
“So for us, it was about selling the opportunity to play with these guys, to play in front of these fans, to play in this city, to connect with this community. Who knows? It doesn’t mean it has to be two, three, four years here. It could be longer than that. I think for him to choose us when he had other longer-term and other shorter-term, I think speaks to the growth and progress we’ve made on creating a destination spot.”
Tucker hit .266 with 22 home runs and 73 RBIs last season with the Chicago Cubs.
Blue Jays Still Have Solid Offseason
Despite Toronto losing out on Tucker and Bo Bichette signing with the Mets, the Blue Jays still had a good offseason.
Toronto started its offseason by signing star free agent pitcher Dylan Cease to a seven-year, $210 million contract. The Blue Jays also inked starter Cody Ponce and reliever Tyler Rogers.
The lone bat Toronto signed was Japanese slugger Kazuma Okamoto to bolster its lineup as he’s projected to start at third base.
The Blue Jays enter spring training with the fourth-best odds of winning the World Series at +1400.
Lions writer’s trade proposal is a nightmare scenario for Isaac TeSlaa
Close your eyes for just a moment.
Imagine a big slot receiver with ridiculous hands, who seems to always have the ability to score an absurd touchdown or, at least, be a servicable blocker in red-zone situations. He’s very reliable in these scenarios, but basically only deployed in these scenarois. Still, he’s a vital part to your teams’ offense.
Are you thinking of Keon Coleman?
Very unlikely!
Coleman, who was just thrown under the bus in a very ridiculous press conference held by the Buffalo Bills following their decision to both fire Sean McDermott as their head coach and promote their general manager Brandon Beane, might end up on the trade block this offseason.
Sports Illustrated’s John Maakaron has suggested that the Lions bark up Buffalo’s tree to see if they could swing a trade for Coleman, who is still on his rookie deal and could have some nice upside as…the exact type of receiver that the Lions already have in Isaac TeSlaa.
Lions writer suggests a trade that would put a wall in front of TeSlaa’s progress
Maakaron wrote of Coleman’s potential value to the Lions:
“Coleman’s trade value is at a low point, so it should not cost a team a Day 1 or Day 2 pick to land his services. Jameson Williams, who the Lions invested a first-round draft pick in, also had similar challenges early in his NFL career…A receivers room featuring Coleman, Williams, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Isaac TeSlaa has the potential to be a matchup nightmare for opposing defenses. Any additional weapons for quarterback Jared Goff should be highly considered.”
The issue with this trade is that, again, Coleman basically fills the role that TeSlaa does on this roster already. Plus, with TeSlaa, you’ve already got a player who clearly has the right mentality for improving and working with the team, as opposed to Coleman, who was a healthy scratch multiple times in 2025 because he was late to meetings and had maturity issues off the field.
While that’s something that Dan Campbell could probably coach out of Coleman, just as he did with Williams as referenced by Maakaron, it just doesn’t feel worth the squeeze when wide receiver is not the biggest issue with this roster. Finding an actually good starting center, and potentially a left tackle, should be the Lions’ priorities on offense.
TeSlaa should be seen as the Lions’ next project to accelerate in 2026, as he showed just how valuable his size and feel for the ball could be in red-zone situations. It felt like everytime the ball went up top to him, there was a good chance he was coming down with it, or at least he’d be making a decent play at it. You just can’t say the same for Coleman’s tenure so far with the Bills.