Cubs' Kyle Tucker gets $418 million contract projection update

Ever since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed his mega contract extension in April, there was no question who the highest-paid free agent in the 2025 class would be.

The only questions remained exactly how much Kyle Tucker would get, and where he would end up.

The time has arrived for the MLB world to find out both of those answers. Free agency is open, and the bidding war for Tucker can commence.

It's certainly going to cost a pretty penny. ESPN's Kiley McDaniel projects Tucker to sign an 11-year contract worth a total value of $418 million.

McDaniel doesn't predict a team outcome, although the Chicago Cubs will likely be in the running to retain Tucker while the likes of the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants pursue him.

"Tucker has been very consistent (he has the 11th-best WAR and is the ninth-best hitter in baseball since 2021) and has been lauded since early in his high school career for his pretty left-handed swing and big power, going fifth in the 2015 draft," McDaniel writes. "That's the kind of long track record and consistency (read: high floor, low bust potential) teams look for when they're making giant investments. The risk for a corner outfielder who will be 30 years old in the second season of his deal is that he could athletically fall off a cliff in the middle of this contract. Tucker is insulated from that concern a bit because he has a track record of being above average on the basepaths and defensively despite below-average top-end speed and only solid-average bat speed. He relies more on feel and precision than pure tools, thus the thinking is he'll age better than the generic very good corner outfielder."

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Tucker's bumpy second half to the season could concern teams a bit, but he was also playing through injury, and so it's probably fair to take that with a grain of salt.

He's also likely helped by being far and away the best player available right now. That should drive his cost up.

Even if Tucker isn't worth every dollar of his deal, he seems a safe bet to be a strong big leaguer for years to come. He'll get the job done in the heart of any order.

Someone is going to pay him a lot of money to do that.

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