Kyle Tucker has been fantastic in a Chicago Cubs uniform so far. How committed is the Cubs' ownership and front office to keeping him around?
The Cubs made a bold play by trading three talented players to the Houston Astros for Tucker with just one year left on the three-time All-Star's contract. It's paying dividends in the short term, with the 28-year-old putting up a .975 OPS and 1.6 bWAR in his first 35 games.
But losing Tucker after just one year, especially if the Cubs don't make a deep playoff run, would be catastrophic. And it seems as though the price tag is going up every day, given the lucrative deals signed in the last few months by Juan Soto with the New York Mets and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with the Toronto Blue Jays.
If it costs $500 million to sign Tucker, which seems like a reasonable guess considering Guerrero got that exact amount, where would the Cubs come down on signing off?
On Monday, Jon Heyman of the New York Post had a fairly emphatic prediction on that front during an appearance on 670 The Score's "The Mully & Haugh Show."
"Tucker, it seems like he's willing to talk in-season, so that is a great sign to get something done," Heyman said. "I had a rival executive tell me, 'They've gotta put the $500 million in front of him.' They're not gonna do that. That's not the Cubs. But you've gotta make him a good offer and give it a shot.
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"Soto might be a one-off to some degree, but then you had Vlad with the $500 million. I get that Toronto was desperate, they had to do it... It feels like Tucker, he seems to be willing to talk in-season, he wants to be here, so let's get it done."
Even if Tucker is indeed itching to talk with the Cubs, it's not a great sign if there's a big gap between what the slugger believes he can get and what Chicago is offering.
And though Tucker is two years older than Guerrero, he plays a more premium position and has been more consistent throughout his career, so it sure seems as though $500 million, or something very close to it, is on the table in free agency.
One thing is for certain. The Cubs have never given out a deal bigger than $184 million. They're going to have to get comfortable going way, way over that amount to have any prayer of keeping Tucker.
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