New Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Kyle Tucker responded to reports of MLB owners wanting a salary cap after he signed with the reigning World Champions.
The Dodgers have been aggressive in free agency over the last few years, pushing their chips all in on their core of Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, and Shohei Ohtani, and this winter was no exception.
They signed the top closer in the free agent market, inking Edwin Diaz to the highest AAV — average annual value — for a reliever in history, and Kyle Tucker just signed a historic four-year, $240 million deal that is the highest AAV for a player after deferrals.
The spending spree has led owners, behind the scenes, to call for a salary cap that limits the Dodgers’ spending and to insist on it in the next collective bargaining agreement.
During his introductory press conference, Tucker was asked about the chatter around his contract and whether he thinks it is good for the sport for the Dodgers to spend so much money.
“I mean, I think baseball is in a good spot. I mean, we have phenomenal attendance around the world. I think attendance at the games, [teams] continue to sell out games, and fans are being very supportive of their teams, their players, and organizations,” Tucker said.
“It’s a good thing having that—the interaction with everyone. It’s just going to grow the game from there. As a league and as players, if we can just continue growing the fan base and having fun with it and continue to have that interaction between the organizations and the fan bases, I think it’s good for baseball.”
What did MLB owners say about the Kyle Tucker Deal?
In a report from Evan Drellich of The Athletic, owners were cited as having real frustrations over the Tucker deal, seemingly taking it as the boiling point for executives upset about the Dodgers’ spending.
“Major League Baseball owners are ‘raging’ in the wake of Kyle Tucker’s free agency agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers and it is now ‘a 100 percent certainty’ that the owners will push for a salary cap, one person briefed on ownership conversations who was not authorized to speak publicly told The Athletic,” Drellich wrote.
“‘These guys are going to go for a cap no matter what it takes,’ the source said.”
A lockout over the new CBA is expected by many in baseball, with the salary cap just one of many points of contention between ownership and the players.
According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, a salary cap is unlikely given the moving parts, but the Tucker deal could be the catalyst for the league to move in that direction.