{"id":101851,"date":"2026-01-16T01:55:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101851\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T01:55:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T01:55:24","slug":"steve-cohen-pens-cryptic-social-media-post-as-mets-await-kyle-tucker-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/101851\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Cohen pens cryptic social media post as Mets await Kyle Tucker decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

The white smoke hasn\u2019t been released in Kyle Tucker\u2019s free agency yet.<\/p>\n

But that didn\u2019t stop Steve Cohen from waiting to set social media on fire. <\/p>\n

The Mets owner took to X<\/a> on Thursday evening, and while he didn\u2019t mention the All-Star outfielder by name, appeared to hint about it with a cryptic post. <\/p>\n

\"KyleKyle Tucker (30) flies out against the Milwaukee Brewers during the sixth inning of Game 1 of the NLDS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at American Family Field. Michael McLoone-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me know when you see smoke,\u201d Cohen said, referring to the papal conclave where white smoke is sent out of a chimney in St. Peter\u2019s Square in Vatican City when a new pope is chosen to lead the Catholic Church and black smoke when a vote does not pick the new pontiff.<\/p>\n

Cohen followed up shortly after with another post, confirming he was making a joke and had no insider knowledge about Tucker\u2019s thought process. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor those who don\u2019t understand the pope election reference,\u201d he wrote, \u201cwe are waiting for a decision. That\u2019s all I know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tucker, long considered the best bat in this free agent class, has three suitors in play for his services \u2014 the Blue Jays, Mets and Dodgers.<\/p>\n

The Amazin\u2019s, in their efforts to vie for his services, have offered Tucker a $50 million-per-season contract over four seasons, The Post\u2019s Mike Puma reported Thursday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Toronto, on the other hand, has reportedly offered Tucker a longer deal, with ESPN\u2019s Jeff Passan saying during a Sportsnet hit on Wednesday night that the Blue Jays could \u201cpotentially\u201d go up to 10 years.<\/p>\n

\"NewMets president of baseball operations David Stearns stands on the field with owner Steve Cohen before the Amazin\u2019s loss to the Yankees on May 16, 2025, in The Bronx. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

As with many top free agents, the Dodgers have remained lurking in case they see an opportunity to swoop in. <\/p>\n

Tucker, in his lone season with the Cubs in 2025, made the National League All-Star team and hit 22 homers with an .841 OPS over 136 games. <\/p>\n

Over his first seven seasons with the Astros, he posted a .274\/.353\/.516 slash line with 125 long balls. <\/p>\n

He has been a Statcast darling throughout his playing career and ranked in the 98th percentile in chase rate and 96th in walk rate this past season. Impressively, his walk (87) and strikeout (88) totals were nearly identical. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The white smoke hasn\u2019t been released in Kyle Tucker\u2019s free agency yet. But that didn\u2019t stop Steve Cohen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7481,20,3473,21528,9,11,320,10,319,3929],"class_list":{"0":"post-101851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-kyle-tucker","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-mlb-free-agency","11":"tag-mlb-hot-stove","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-mets","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-steve-cohen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}