The Toronto Blue Jays, just weeks after coming two outs away from capturing their third World Series title in the 49-year history of the franchise, have made the biggest splash in free agency of any team in the major leagues. To date, the lone MLB Team based north of the border has shelled out contracts worth $337 million, according to a USA Today report.
Of the 15 free agents who have signed deals worth at least $30 million, four of them — 27 percent — have signed with the Blue Jays. And those figures do not include the $500 million, 14-year contract extension the Blue Jays signed with five-time All-Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in April, or the surprising opt-in taken by pitcher Shane Bieber.
Prediction Sees Toronto Spending Topping $1 Billion
By exercising his player option to stay with the Blue Jays, the 30-year-old Bieber in effect signed a one-year, $16 million contract with Toronto.
All told, the Blue Jays will spend $853 million on players signed during the 2025 season and subsequent offseason.
But according to a new prediction by one leading MLB analyst, Toronto will soon push that number well over $1 billion.
Analyst Revises Projection on Top Free Agent
Former Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros four-time All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker stands as the most highly coveted free agent remaining on the market as of the first full week in January. Predictions on where Tucker will end up and how large a contract he will receive have ranged fairly widely, some as high as $418 million over 11 years.
The sports business site Spotrac sees Tucker raking in $401.7 million over 10 years.
Analyst Tim Kelly of Bleacher Report previously predicted that Tucker would sign with the New York Yankees on a 10 year deal worth $360 million.
On Monday, however, Kelly published a new prediction, with a lower value for Tucker — and a different team to sign him.
Tucker Heads to Blue Jays in Revised Prediction
According to Kelly, “Tucker has always been an awkward No. 1 overall free agent because the incumbent Cubs were never expected to be serious about retaining him, while he seemed to be a fallback option for clubs like the Phillies and Yankees if they weren’t able to re-sign their stars.”
Though he is considered the best remaining hitter available, few teams have made it clear that signing Tucker is among their top offseason objectives. The Blue Jays are perhaps at the top of the list, in part because they are the only team Tucker is know to have met with in person. He traveled to their Florida spring training facility in early December.
“Given the lack of teams that seem to have Tucker as their top priority, we’ve downgraded our contract projection for the 29-year-old to an eight-year deal, as opposed to the original 10-season projection,” Kelly wrote.
The final, for now, Bleacher Report prediction? Tucker signs with the Blue Jays for $288 million. Over eight seasons that comes out to $36 million per year.
If Kelly’s prediction proves accurate, and the Blue Jays sign no one else this offseason, they will have committed a total of $1.14 billion in contracts. The $36 million annual salary would push Tucker past Guerrero Jr. as the Blue Jays’ highest-paid player, on a yearly basis, and would be the third contact on Toronto’s books of over $30 million per year, along with Guerrero and newly signed free agent pitcher Dylan Cease.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
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