The deep-pocketed Dodgers did it once more.
This week’s four-year, $240 million dedication to star outfielder Kyle Tucker marked merely the most recent mega-money contract concocted by the Dodgers below their never-satisfied Guggenheim possession group.
Los Angeles gained a free-agent bidding warfare over the Mets and Toronto Blue Jays to land the lefty-swinging Tucker, who agreed to a shorter-term cope with a better annual wage moderately than the long-term contract many projected him to signal as this offseason’s prime free agent.
Debates proceed to rage over whether or not the free-spending Dodgers are dangerous for baseball, whether or not a wage cap is imminent, and whether or not MLB is destined for a lockout after the present collective bargaining settlement expires subsequent winter.
However what we do know now’s that the Dodgers proceed to make unprecedented strikes in pursuit of a 3rd consecutive World Sequence championship, so let’s break all of it down by the numbers:
60: The over-simplified breakdown of Tucker’s contract is that he’ll common $60 million per season, which pales compared solely to the unadjusted $70 million common worth of latest teammate Shohei Ohtani’s closely deferred 10-year, $700 million deal.
57: As a result of $30 million of Tucker’s contract is deferred, the web present-day worth of his annual wage is $57.1 million, based on ESPN. That units a brand new MLB file, blowing previous the $51 million per yr the Mets pay Juan Soto.
413.6: Spotrac presently pegs the Dodgers’ 2026 aggressive tax payroll at $413.6 million. That’s almost $100 million greater than the second-place Mets ($317.0 million) and greater than 4 occasions that of the last-ranked Miami Marlins ($100.1 million).
575.6: The Dodgers’ payroll is projected to yield a tax invoice of almost $162 million, based on Spotrac, which might put Los Angeles’ complete 2026 payroll expenditure at a whopping $575.6 million.
2.1: That’s what number of billions — sure, with a “b” — the Dodgers now have in general assured contract cash on their books, together with deferrals, based on Spotrac.
8: As soon as his signing turns into official, Tucker would be the eighth participant on the Dodgers with a contract exceeding $100 million in complete worth. The others are Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Tyler Glasnow.
7: By way of luxury-tax wage, the Dodgers are set to have seven of this season’s top-26 highest-earning gamers, together with Tucker ($57.1 million) at No. 1 and Ohtani ($46.1 million) at No. 3. All seven are set to rely for at the very least $27 million.
36: Based mostly on FanGraphs’ worth mannequin, Tucker’s manufacturing with the Chicago Cubs final season was price $36.0 million. By that very same metric, Tucker’s Most worthy season got here in 2021, when his manufacturing was price $39.4 million.
5: Nonetheless, final season marked the fifth yr in a row that the regular Tucker hit at the very least 22 dwelling runs, posted an .OPS greater than .800 and completed with greater than 4 wins above alternative (WAR).
24: The full worth of $240 million ties Tucker with Albert Pujols (2011) and Robinson Cano (2013) for the Twenty fourth-biggest MLB contract ever. In fact, Pujols and Cano’s contracts have been each for 10 years, making their common annual salaries lower than half of Tucker’s.
