RSS Dodgers Team Notes

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Clayton Kershaw will pitch in World Baseball Classic after all

Clayton Kershaw has thrown his last major league pitch, but he’ll give it one last go in the World Baseball Classic, pitching for the United States in the international tournament this March. It was announced on Thursday morning.

CLAYTON KERSHAW!

The three-time World Series champ, 11-time All-Star, three-time NL Cy Young Award winner, and 2014 NL MVP will suit up one last time for Team USA at the World Baseball Classic! pic.twitter.com/CnUnpa1oeH

— USA Baseball (@USABaseball) January 15, 2026

Kershaw was originally slated to pitch for Team USA during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, but had to bow out of the competition due to issues in securing insurance for the tournament. This will be Kershaw’s first time pitching in the WBC.

“It’s super disappointing. We tried a lot of different things. All sides really tried to make it work,” Kershaw said three years ago. “Nothing is wrong with me. It just didn’t work out. I really wanted to do it. I really wanted to be a part of that group. It was probably my last chance to get to do it, so I really wanted to do it, but it just didn’t work out for a number of reasons.”

Now with no major league season to prepare for and no major league team to join, that removes some level of risk for Kershaw heading into the WBC.

Team USA begins play in Pool B on March 6 at Daikin Park in Houston, with round robin play and three games, with the top two of the four teams advancing to the knockout stage. Should USA advance, a quarterfinal game would also be in Houston on March 13 or 14. Tournament semifinals are at loanDepot Park in Miami on March 15 and 16, with the championship game in Miami on March 17, two days shy of Kershaw’s 38th birthday.

Kershaw retired in November after his 18th season, a career that included three Cy Young Awards, a National League MVP, three strikeout titles, and five ERA titles. Now he’ll add the World Baseball Classic to his résumé.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/world-baseball-classic/109027/clayton-kershaw-world-baseball-classic-2026

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Kyle Tucker picks Dodgers over Mets & Blue Jays

The Dodgers have made themselves quite comfortable in the deep end of the free agent pool. First came the signing of closer Edwin Díaz to a record-setting contract, and now comes outfielder Kyle Tucker, the top free agent on the market, per multiple reports.

Jeff Passan was first to report the pact.

BREAKING: Star outfielder Kyle Tucker and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in agreement on a free agent contract, sources tell ESPN.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 16, 2026

Tucker has topped four Wins Above Replacement in each of the last five seasons (and was on pace for more than that in the 60-game 2020 season as well), averaging 5.1 bWAR and 4.7 fWAR from 2021-25. He’s one of the game’s most consistent producers, which vaulted him No. 1 in offseason free agent rankings at ESPN, The Athletic, Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, MLB Trade Rumors, Baseball Prospectus, and MLB.com.

After seven years with the Astros, Tucker was traded to the Cubs last winter and hit .266/.377/.464 with a 136 wRC+, 22 home runs, 25 doubles, and 25 stolen bases in 136 games in 2025.

Right field is where Tucker has started 90.5 percent of his career games in the field, and he hasn’t played another position in the field since 2021. He’s the kind of player for whom the Dodgers would consider moving Teoscar Hernández, who was the subject of trade rumors this week that were downplayed by the front office.

“Could he move to left? Potentially, but I will say from my eye test, the last game in Colorado his right field defense was at least average,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Hernández, to reporters at the winter meetings. “We’ll have conversations, but I do think with the versatility potential and how we shape this roster, there are some options. But right now, he’s our right fielder.”

Tucker turns 29 in January, and joins 25-year-old center fielder Andy Pages as the only regular Dodgers position players younger than 30.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/los-angeles-dodgers-news-notes/108318/kyle-tucker-dodgers-contract

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Reactions to Kyle Tucker signing with the Dodgers

It was only a matter of time until the Dodgers pounced on one of the biggest names left on the open market. That day came on Thursday, as Kyle Tucker agreed to a four-year, $240 million to become the newest slugger within a vaunted Dodgers lineup.

The rich get richer, and the two-time reigning World Series champions continue to “ruin” baseball. Here are some reactions to the Dodgers signing Tucker.

The move for Tucker not only gives the Dodgers another fortified power bat in the middle of the lineup, but helps reshuffle their outfield on defense as he’ll be the team’s new primary right fielder coming off a season where he posted a -2 outs above average and a league average fielding run value, per Benjamin Royer of the Los Angeles Times.

The signing addresses an area where the Dodgers were in need of an upgrade, after the outfield corps posted minus-1.6 wins above replacement in 2025. Tucker, a four-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger and a Gold Glove winner, recorded 4.6 wins above replacement during the 2025 season, and will probably slot somewhere amid the trio of Mookie Betts, Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in the Dodgers’ starting lineup.

The two other teams in the running for Tucker were the New York Mets and the defending AL champion Toronto Blue Jays. Now that Tucker has found a new home for the next four seasons, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic breaks down what is next for both teams as they attempt to move forward without claiming the most highly touted free agent of the offseason.

To sign Bellinger, the next-best free-agent outfielder, they would need to beat the Yankees’ five-year offer for between $155 million and $160 million, without deferrals. That seems unlikely, given the Mets’ preference for shorter deals. But to a degree, they have backed themselves into a corner… The Jays are a strong bet to repeat as American League champions even after striking out on Tucker… If Bellinger goes back to the Yankees and Bichette signs with the Phillies, the rest of the Jays’ offseason likely will include only minor alterations.

Sonja Chen of MLB.com breaks down the signing of Tucker, adding that he clearly pushes the Dodgers over the edge as the bona fide force from top to bottom in Major League Baseball.

Adding Tucker comes with steep penalties, even without factoring in his high price tag. Committing to him is a decision that the Dodgers did not make lightly. But they are not afraid to spend when it comes to talent that they believe can push them over the edge, and Tucker is exactly that.

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Clayton Kershaw isn’t done pitching just yet, as he will join Team USA for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Kershaw spoke with Matt Vasgersian and Harold Reynolds of MLB Network about competing in the WBC on Thursday where he noted that he’s only there to be around a star-studded group of players.

"I told DeRo, 'I just want to be the insurance policy. If anybody needs a breather.'" @ClaytonKersh22 joined #MLBNHotStove to discuss representing @USABaseball in the upcoming #WorldBaseballClassic! https://t.co/DJxSj0a4Pa pic.twitter.com/3vQWe5r2AJ

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 15, 2026

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/dodgers-...ctions-clayton-kershaw-world-baseball-classic

 

[JJ]

Oh great, the Dodgers just keep stacking talent like they're playing MLB The Show on easy mode. Kyle Tucker at 4 years/$240 million? Must be nice having unlimited money to just grab whoever you want whenever you want.

Look, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend Tucker isn't an absolute stud - the guy's been consistently putting up 5+ WAR seasons and he's only 28. That's a legitimate superstar in his prime years. But come on, at what point does the league actually do something about one team hoarding all the talent? They just won back-to-back World Series and their response is "let's add the best free agent on the market."

And now they're shuffling Teoscar Hernandez around like he's some spare part? The guy was a key piece of their championship runs! That's how stacked this roster is - a quality everyday player becomes expendable.

The Kershaw WBC news is actually pretty cool though. Gotta respect the man wanting to go out representing his country one more time. After everything he's accomplished, it'll be nice to see him in a competitive setting again without the pressure of a pennant race. Team USA is gonna be loaded.

But back to Tucker - Mets and Blue Jays fans gotta be absolutely SICK right now. You think you're in the running for a franchise-changing player and the Dodgers just swoop in and write a bigger check. Tale as old as time with this organization.

 

[Zedster]

Yeah, the Dodgers financial flexibility is something else. Though I'd push back a little on the "unlimited money" framing - they're paying for it through the luxury tax and they've built a front office that consistently identifies value. Doesn't make it less frustrating for other fanbases, but it's not like there aren't other teams with deep pockets who could be doing similar things.

Tucker at $60M AAV is steep, but the shorter term is actually pretty smart risk management on their part. They're not locked into paying a 35-year-old outfielder, and Tucker's consistency over the last five years suggests he's about as safe a bet as you'll find in free agency. The defensive metrics aren't elite but he's serviceable out there, and that bat plays anywhere in the lineup.

The Hernandez situation is interesting. I wouldn't be shocked if they move him, but I also wouldn't be shocked if Roberts finds a way to get everyone at-bats. That's been their MO - they seem to thrive with that roster flexibility where guys shift around and stay fresh. Whether Teo buys into a reduced role is another question entirely.

As for Kershaw in the WBC - that's the story I'm most looking forward to honestly. Him calling himself the "insurance policy" is classic Kershaw humility, but you know he's going to want the ball in a meaningful spot at least once. Would be a fitting way to close out his competitive career if he can get a clean inning or two in the tournament.

Mets and Jays will bounce back. Plenty of offseason left.

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

‘Let’s be pigs,’ revisited

After the Dodgers signed Blake Snell around Thanksgiving 2024, I remembered the Dodgers’ mindset after winning the 2020 World Series.

My mind kept going back to a quote I read from Andy McCullough’s biography of Clayton Kershaw: The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness.

In discussing the thought process that Kershaw went through in the years after winning the 2020 World Series that led him back to the Dodgers after considering joining his hometown Texas Rangers and retirement, the mindset of the Dodgers’ front office to start the 2021 season was discussed and could be best described in three words.

“Let’s be pigs.”

On page 325 of McCullough’s book, the above quotation is attributed to Andrew Friedman, as the organization’s thought process was not sit on their laurels, content with just a single title.

[emphasis added.]

For what it is worth, the plan backfired spectacularly as the Dodgers overvalued the results of the shortened regular season to figuratively set $102 million on fire in a decision that had a hangover effect until the signing of Shohei Ohtani. After that fiasco, the Dodgers learned not to needlessly spend, but to spend efficiently on the best fit. The Dodgers did not guarantee themselves success yesterday, but they ruthlessly upgraded themselves, which sometimes is enough.

I will argue to my dying day that had the Dodgers spent a fraction of what they spent on Anthony DeScalfini instead, the streak of division titles would have remained unbroken, and the title defense would have been a lot more likely as DeScalfini effectively ate innings in 2021, preserving arms like Walker Buehler and now-disgraced Julio Urías for the playoff run.

Much like the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays, on this point, I can only go what if, but one never has the opportunity to discuss this particular point in context.

Time is a flat circle​

Stop me if you have heard this one, but the Dodgers’ acquisitions of the past three offseasons could be best described as “this verse, same as the first.”

Before the 2024 season, the Dodgers signed both the unicorn, the eventual Hall of Famer Shohei Ohtani, and the best pedigreed pitcher to ever pitch in Nippon Professional Baseball, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and the Dodgers won their first World Series since the COVID Cup year of 2020 on the backs of Freddie Freeman, just enough pitching, and duct tape.

In 2025, the Dodgers sign not-quite-ready yet phenom Roki Sasaki and the best available bullpen arms to fill the perceived weakness of the roster, the bullpen: Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, and re-sign Blake Treinen. Things got a little hinky, but the Dodgers eventually won their first back-to-back World Series in franchise history and are the first repeat champions in the sport in 25 years.

In 2026, the Dodgers signed the best relief arm available (again) in Edwin Diaz and the best outfield bat available in Kyle Tucker, who greeted the Dodger fanbase on Instagram Thursday evening.

View this post on Instagram

Contrary to popular belief, I have seen Dodgers fans’ reaction to the signing be one of bemused acceptance. It is no longer shocking when the marquee talent comes to Los Angeles; the cost of experience is wonder. Winning the Ohtani sweepstakes, followed by winning the Snell sweepstakes, followed by winning the Tucker sweepstakes, is almost old-hat at this point.

Still, the rich get richer, and it is still fun. While Tucker is not an Ohtani-level talent, he fits the Dodgers’ biggest offensive need while providing some much-needed youth over the next two to four seasons.

The Ascendant Empire​

I am not going to pretend that the Los Angeles Dodgers are not the perceived villains of the sport. Still, if the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that success on the field is not guaranteed, but one can tilt the odds in one’s favor with enough money.

However, the team makes itself hard to love sometimes, especially when it will not pay its tour guides a living wage and charges its most devoted fans a premium to come to its annual FanFest. One need only look back fifteen years ago to a painfully unfunny monologue by Seth Meyers at the ESPY awards, who rattled off “the Dodgers are so poor jokes” in quick-fire succession thanks to the sheer incompetence of former owner Frank McCourt.

Remember when Dodgers were the butt of the jokes at 2011 ESPYs, how no one cared they got cheated of a title in 2017? How 2020 didn’t count? A Mickey Mouse ring. How they always will choke in the playoffs. Now who is laughing. All that laughing has turned into crying pic.twitter.com/wCuUgePKha

— DodgersBeat (@DodgersBeat) January 16, 2026

No one outside Los Angeles is laughing anymore.

Yes, fans should be angry at their skinflint owners who refuse to spend money to put a quality product on the field or discuss trading their stars for pennies on the dollar (see: Peralta, Freddy, Milwaukee Brewers; see also: Skubal, Tarik, Detroit Tigers, Skenes, Paul, Pittsburgh Pirates) rather than build a nucleus around them. But if folks want to be angry at the Dodgers, fine — do whatever makes you happy. To paraphrase one of the seminal songs of my childhood: “If it makes you happy, then why the heck are you so sad?”

As Eric Stephen points out, yes, the Dodgers used deferred money and creative accounting to get Tucker into Dodger blue. Other teams are finally starting to use some of the Dodgers’ accounting skills, but there is only one Shohei Ohtani, one Mookie Betts, and so on.

All that ink about the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox being active in the offseason looks a lot less lustrous now. Apparently, the New York Mets tore the figurative guts out of their seemingly dysfunctional team after spending all that non-deferred money on Juan Soto just to regress badly in typical Mets’ fashion. I would riff on the New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, and San Diego Padres, but for the life of me, I cannot parse a viable strategy apart from “hope and prayer.”

If titles could be won by simply cracking open a checkbook, the Mets and Yankees would be basking in championship gold rather than in the tears of their frustrated and disappointed fans. For all of the money and revenue the Dodgers generated in 2025, they still had to dig themselves out of a 3-2 series hole in Toronto to remain champions.

The Dodgers have built an engine that, at this point, is practically self-sustaining, driven by making money and winning through scouting, development, and signing. Yes, the Dodgers put the torch to their draft picks for this upcoming draft, but if Tucker and Diaz pan out, it’s a small price to pay to keep the engine running. A franchise record of over four million fans came to Dodger Stadium in 2025, and overall attendance topped 70 million for the third consecutive season, in part due to Dodgers fans showing up in droves on the road.

As is often the case, no one pays attention to the avalanche until it is on top of them, when it is far too late to seek cover. In-depth discussions about baseball’s changing economic model are for another day, as well as the owner’s next ill-fated lockout in approximately twelve months; right now, as Jacob Macofsky points out, the Dodgers paid a premium, and reaction around the league was swift.

Everyone sees the end result of the Dodgers’ efforts, and either tries to mimic the model poorly (see: the Blue Jays; see also: the Philadelphia Phillies, the Padres, the Mets) or feigns helplessness and does next to nothing (see: the Giants; see also: the teams subsisting on revenue-sharing money).

Anyone in baseball would be forgiven for waking up to Sonny and Cher’s I’ve Got You, Babe a la Groundhog Day, and thinking it’s either a blissful dream that will never end (if you’re a Dodgers fan) or an odious nightmare that just will not stop (if you’re the rest of the league).

Time is a flat circle, but the Dodgers have got you, babe — at least for right now. The Dodgers’ empire is still ascendant as they finally added some youthful pop in Tucker to complement their aged core. Barring a surprise acquisition by trade of Skubal or Skenes or an ill-advised reunion with Cody Bellinger, one would imagine that the Dodgers’ offseason is now mostly complete.

I say mostly because at the end of the day, the Dodgers are missing only a familiar face as they march towards an attempted threepeat. At this point, it would be shocking if the Dodgers did not reunite with the player who holds the record for appearances in playoff games: Kiké Hernández. As Hernández said at the 2025 Championship Rally at Dodger Stadium, the champion does not apologize to anyone.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/los-angeles-dodgers-news-notes/109053/dodgers-kyle-tucker-excess

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Dodgers notes: Kyle Tucker, Max Muncy, Nick Robertson

Nick Robertson, a right-handed reliever drafted by the Dodgers in 2019 and who made his major league debut with Los Angeles in 2023 before getting traded for Kiké Hernández, signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers, per Ari Alexander of 7News in Boston.

Robertson last season had a 4.30 ERA with 52 strikeouts and 30 walks in 52 1/3 innings in 43 games in Triple-A between the Astros and Royals systems. The 27-year-old right-hander pitched in the majors for the Dodgers, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Blue Jays in 2023-24.

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The addition of Kyle Tucker to the Dodgers definitely bolsters the outfield production and the lineup as well. Anthony Castrovince at MLB.com looked specifically at the combo of Tucker, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith, all of whom posted at least a 140 OPS+ last season, and the rarity of such a quartet.

David Roth at Defector looked at the last few days, and how the Tucker signing spurred more action and reaction among some top-spending teams. The Mets, who were in on Tucker, pivoted to Bo Bichette, whom they plan to play at a new position. That left the Bichette-pursuing Phillies left empty-handed, and they re-signed catcher JT Realmuto.

Max Muncy’s wife Kellie gave birth to the couple’s third child on Tuesday, a daughter named Macie Grace, which was shared on Instagram:

View this post on Instagram

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/dodgers-links/109090/dodgers-kyle-tucker-max-muncy-nick-robertson

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Want to improve your outfield? Just sign Kyle Tucker

Last year, the left fielders for the Los Angeles Dodgers put up a 99 wRC+. That number is actually flattering because Andy Pages managed to do some of his best work (226 wRC+) in his short time away from center field, in 64 plate appearances. Whether Kyle Tucker comes in to play left or we’ll see Teoscar Hernández make the shift to left, as neither one of them has played the position with any sort of regularity in the bigs, that production is what Tucker comes in to replace. Michael Conforto was the primary left fielder for the Dodgers last season, and we all know how well that turned out, given his complete absence on the postseason roster.

While we could have a lengthier conversation about what Tucker’s specific contract represents as MLB gears up for, at the bare minimum, some tense negotiations between owners and the MLBPA in the near future, there’s plenty to unpack on the field. Yet another perennial All-Star added to this collection of great players, Tucker only enhances the bullseye on the Dodgers’ back, if that was even possible.

Tucker is a fascinating example of a baseball player who makes the most out of his natural abilities. Not necessarily the fastest, Tucker has stolen 25-plus bases consistently for the past four seasons, with the exception of a 2024 campaign cut in half due to an injury. Nowhere near the top of the leaderboards when it comes to exit velocity, Tucker gets to enough power to have a .507 slugging percentage in his career, a master of pulling the ball in the air. Reliably, the former Astro and Cub also has outstanding plate discipline, accumulating nearly as many walks (223) as strikeouts (234) over the last three seasons — that particular aspect of his game has been evolving since his early days with Houston.

Over the last two seasons, for large enough samples, Tucker looked on his way to taking steps forward from the established 4.5/5.0 win player he’s been since 2021 into an even higher level as a perennial MVP candidate—only for it to fall short on that endeavor. Twice, injuries could be seen as the culprit in limiting the impact that was still rather impressive.

Back in 2024, his last season with the Astros, Tucker was magnificent in the first half, hitting 19 home runs with a near-1.000 OPS by June 3rd. Sadly, a right shin fracture, which was initially misdiagnosed as a contusion, kept him out until September, much later than initially hoped. What looked to be Tucker’s best season was cut short. This past season, once again, Tucker appeared set to take that step forward in the first half, hitting 17 homers, stealing 20 bags, and posting a .931 OPS through the end of June. From July onwards, though, Tucker started slumping, and while it’s only speculative, there’s a chance a hairline fracture he suffered on his right hand in early June affected his performance in the second half. Tucker played through the issue, arguing it was primarily a pain-tolerance problem, and his struggles in the second half could have nothing to do with it, but the possibility can’t be totally ruled out.

Having said all of this, the positive sign is that, even in a season with such a prolonged slump as he had last year (.378 slugging percentage in the second half), Tucker was able to put up his standard 4.5 fWAR campaign. While it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to see Tucker produce career-high numbers if he can sustain the evolution he’s shown since 2024 for a full campaign, whichever version of Tucker the Dodgers get, he’s going to provide a massive boost to this lineup. His addition will help take some of the pressure off Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and company. Furthermore, as we touched on it a bit when discussing who the fans preferred between Bo Bichette and Tucker here, on top of everything else, Tucker is as great as it gets when it comes to left-on-left crime — Tucker is the rare left-handed hitter who looks completely unfazed batting against southpaws (career .842 against LHP).

The Dodgers needed help in the outfield, and they signed the top-ranked free agent on the market to fill that need.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/los-angeles-dodgers-news-notes/109097/kyle-tucker-dodgers-outfield

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Dodgers won’t have as many draft picks in 2026, after signing Kyle Tucker

The Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker, landing the top free agent on the market with an eye-popping four-year, $240 million contract. After setting competitive balance tax records in each of the last two seasons, this move ensured they will stay in that area for at least two more years, if not longer.

But along with the pure financial cost of signing Tucker — $60 million per year on average, or $57.1 million AAV for competitive balance tax purposes accounting for deferrals — comes another penalty.

Tucker was one of nine free agents to reject a qualifying offer in November. Any new team that signs such a player faces a draft-pick loss. As a competitive balance tax payer, the Dodgers’ penalty for signing a qualifying-offer free agent is forfreiting their second- and fifth-highest draft picks. If this sounds familiar, it’s because the Dodgers already signed a qualifying-offer free agent by adding Edwin Díaz in December.

Signing free agents with a qualifying offer isn’t new for the Dodgers, having brought in A.J. Pollock (2019), Trevor Bauer (2021), Freddie Freeman (2022), and Shohei Ohtani (2024) previously. But this is the first time they’ve signed two in the same offseason.

Because the Dodgers gave up their second and fifth-highest picks for signing Díaz, their penalty for adding Tucker will be losing their third and sixth-round selections this July. That leaves a relatively bare cupboard at the top of their draft board for 2026.

The Dodgers’ first-round pick would normally be 30th overall, at the end of the first round after winning the World Series. But because they surpassed the third competitive balance tax threshold last season — they also blew past the fourth (highest) threshold, too — the Dodgers will see their first pick drop 10 slots to 40th overall. We saw this in both 2022 and 2024 as well.

The 2026 draft order isn’t yet finalized, as there are still three qualifying-offer free agents remaining on the market — Framber Valdez, Bo Bichette, and Zac Gallen. But we have at least a general idea of when the Dodgers will pick in July.

Round	Pick No.	2025 equivalent slot value
1	40	$2,443,600
4	137	$534,100
7	226	$248,700
8	256	$210,900
9	286	$195,300
10	316	$187,300
Total	bonus pool	$3,819,900

pick numbers after 1st pick are estimated

A team’s draft bonus pool is comprised of the recommended slot values of every pick that team has in the first 10 rounds. Every signing bonus from the first 10 rounds is counted against the pool, as is any amount over $150,000 for picks after the 10th round. Teams are allowed to exceed the bonus pool, with a 75-percent tax on any overage up to five percent over the pool. Any overage above five percent would result in the loss of draft picks. In the 15 years of this system, no MLB team has spent enough to incur this draft-pick penalty.

But the bottom line is the Dodgers will have less to spend than probably any other year of the draft slotting system. If we use the 2025 slot values for each estimated Dodgers pick in 2026, that comes to $3,819,900. The slots and bonus pools increased by 8.7 percent from 2023 to 2024, but only went up by 4.8 percent from 2024 to 2025. If those total Dodgers slot values increase by 4.8 percent this year, they’ll have $4,003,255 to spend. If it goes up by 8.7 percent, they’ll have $4,152,231 to spend.

Either way, it’ll be their lowest bonus pool in the 16 years of the draft slotting system. Their previous low was in 2022 with $4,223,800 to spend, a little below 2021 when their bonus pool was $4,646,700. The Dodgers had a higher bonus pool even in 2020 ($5,928,500) when the draft was truncated to only five rounds.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/dodgers-mlb-draft/109064/dodgers-draft-picks-2026-kyle-tucker

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Dodgers unlikely to trade Teoscar Hernández

The Dodgers have been fairly quiet this offseason compared to the last two, but when they have struck, the bounty has been plentiful.

After bringing back Miguel Rojas for the final season of his big league career, the Dodgers shored up their bullpen by bringing in Edwin Díaz to a three-year deal worth $69 million. After a month of wondering where star free agents like Kyle Tucker, Cody Bellinger or Bo Bichette would sign, the Dodgers stunned the baseball world by agreeing to a four-year, $240 million deal with Tucker, making him the highest paid outfielder per annual average value in baseball history.

Tucker is now slated to be the team’s primary right fielder, sliding Teoscar Hernández back to left field where he primarily played during the 2024 season. Hernández was previously involved in trade rumors during the winter meetings, as the Kansas City Royals expressed interest in him, but the Dodgers are reportedly unlikely to deal him away, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The Dodgers are more likely to consider deals for either outfielder Ryan Ward or pitcher Bobby Miller.

Fresh off their stunning signing of free-agent right fielder Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers are expected to keep Teoscar Hernández and move him to left field. As reported previously, Hernández’s name has surfaced in trade conversations. The Dodgers, however, are more likely to explore deals for outfielder Ryan Ward, a career minor leaguer who last season was MVP of the Pacific Coast League at 27, or right-hander Bobby Miller, who has been a disappointment.

Links​

Alongside the Dodgers in the sweepstakes for Kyle Tucker were the New York Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays. The Mets reportedly offered a similar short-term deal for Tucker reported at four years for $220 million that included a $75 million signing bonus with no deferrals, while the Blue Jays were the only team of the three to go for a long-term deal, with Jon Heyman of the New York Post tweeting that the deal was for 10 years for $350 million.

On the surface, Kyle Tucker didn’t have quite the success at home with the Chicago Cubs than he did away from Wrigley Field. In reality, his home and road split divergence was mostly due to a fractured hand that tanked his second half numbers at the plate, but it doesn’t help that Wrigley Field isn’t so friendly to hitters, ranking 26th in park factor. Mike Petriello of MLB.com examines how the move to a more hitter-friendly environment in Dodger Stadium (along with the hopes of him staying healthy) could help Tucker put up similar offensive numbers he had with the Houston Astros.

Chad Jennings and Stephen J. Nesbitt of The Athletic compare the Kyle Tucker signing to other notable moves across sports where a star player joined a defending champion, such as Kevin Durant’s heavily maligned move to join the Golden State Warriors.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/dodgers-...teoscar-hernandez-kyle-tucker-blue-jays-offer

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Dodgers notes: Kyle Tucker, Alex Vesia

Kyle Tucker adds a potent bat to the Dodgers lineup, especially against right-handed pitchers. Maxfield Lane and Owen Riley at the Down on the Farm newsletter tried to quantify exactly how much:

Upgrading from a league-average bat in the third OF spot to one of the league’s best hitters would be a big gain in any context, but his impact on the Dodgers is boosted further by their already loaded lineup. Tucker provides the pop to drive in LA’s elite OBP guys, while his own OBP presence creates more RBI potential for the still fantastic bottom of the Dodgers’ order.

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At Big West Dugout, a writer under the pseudonym Eephus Tosser looked at a few recent transactions — Tucker to the Dodgers, Gavin Lux traded by the Reds included — through an economist’s lens. He alluded to how the Dodgers invested early in building a player development system, which coupled with their vast resources is helping them thrive now.

“They didn’t draft Tucker. They didn’t tank for him. They didn’t reorganize their system to accommodate him. They simply absorbed him—financially and structurally—without changing how they operate,” he wrote. “That’s abundance after discipline. Resource importation without institutional erosion.”

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Alex Vesia’s wife Kayla posted a TikTok video on Friday showing Vesia going through the process of designing his gloves for the 2026 season, with various details. Of note, Kayla said Vesia’s gloves will now include their late daughter Sterling’s name.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/dodgers-links/109115/dodgers-kyle-tucker-alex-vesia

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Dodgers’ deal for Kyle Tucker is a whopping $240 million over 4 years, per reports

Another year, another sticker shock for the Dodgers, who have leaned into their role as the biggest spenders in the sport, with gusto. Kyle Tucker is their newest prize, picking Los Angeles over the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays, his two other reported closest pursuers.

Tucker signed for a reported $240 million over four years per multiple reports. Jeff Passan at ESPN, who broke news of the signing, has more details on the breakdown of the deal, along with Alden González:

Full details on Kyle Tucker's Dodgers contract, per ESPN sources:

– 4 years, $240 million guaranteed
– Opt-outs after Years 2 and 3
– $64M signing bonus
– $30M deferred
– $57.1M a year in net present value after factoring in deferrals — a record by $6M+

A staggering deal.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 16, 2026

Tucker at $60 million per year would be the second-highest contract in MLB history by nominal average annual value, behind only Shohei Ohtani’s $70 million per year. But with deferrals, the average annual value comes down a bit, to a reported $57.1 million for competitive balance tax purposes. That would be the highest ever, ahead of Juan Soto ($51 million) and Ohtani ($46.1 million).

While Tucker has been a great player, he’s not Ohtani. But he didn’t have to be in this market, with Bo Bichette and Cody Bellinger his main competition among this year’s free agent class. Coupled with a dearth of impact hitters the next couple of offseason, Tucker represented a rare chance to add a true difference-maker to a lineup, hence the premium price tag.

The coupling of large signing bonus ($64 million) and deferrals ($30 million) is similar to what the Dodgers have done with recent deals. Blake Snell received his entire $52 million signing bonus last season, for instance. That the Dodgers have over $1 billion in total deferred salaries — to 10 players, to be paid between 2028 and 2047 — creates another sticker shock, though Ohtani’s whopping $680 million deferred really skews that number.

It’s not as simple as saying paying Ohtani only $2 million per year during his contract (and $68 million annually each year from 2034-43) is funding the Dodgers moving into another stratosphere of spending. By rule, teams must set aside funds to eventually cover any deferred salaries down the road.

“It’s just how you account for it. You have to fund a lot of it right now, and having that money go to work for you,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said in December 2024. “A lot of our ownership group are from financial background, and can have that money going to work right now, and not something that sneaks up on us. We’re not going to wake up in 2035 and say, ‘Oh my God, that’s right. There’s this money due.’ We’ll plan for it along the way.”

But the financial flexibility does help, as does winning the last two World Series. It allows the Dodgers to strike when they see someone they want. And they haven’t missed on much recently.

Once Tucker is officially on board, the Dodgers will have 22 players under contract for 2026. Filling out the roster, and adding in the usual assumptions for minor league salaries, pre-arbitration bonus pool, and team benefits, their payroll for competitive balance tax purposes will be well over $385 million already.

The first CBT threshold in 2026 — the final year of the collective bargaining agreement — is $244 million, and the Dodgers will blow past all four thresholds. Anything they spend over $304 million this year will be taxed at 110 percent, the highest allowable rate as multiple-time repeat tax payers. But this is nothing new, as the Dodgers’ last two luxury tax bills are the two highest in MLB history:

• 2024: $103 million tax on a $353 million payroll
• 2025: $169.4 million tax on a $417.3 million payroll

When I first started tracking Dodgers payroll in 2009, my first year writing for True Blue LA, the purpose was far different than now. I was trying to see how much the Dodgers were spending, because there were legitimate questions of the depths of then-owner Frank McCourt’s pockets, which proved to be well-founded when he dragged the team into bankruptcy before leaving town with a billion-dollar parachute.

Now, tracking Dodgers payroll is more of an accounting exercise. Functionally there’s not much purpose, other than to see just how much they might spend. It’d be one thing if one of these signings might hamper the Dodgers from making other moves. But after signing Ohtani to a record-setting contract, the Dodgers also signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the largest deal ever for a pitcher, and traded for Tyler Glasnow. Last year, the Dodgers signed Snell for $182 million over five years.

It hasn’t hindered them yet.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/dodgers-payroll/109056/dodgers-kyle-tucker-240-million

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Dodgers outfield prospects reign supreme

To date this offseason, three outlets have unveiled a ranking of Dodgers prospects. Baseball America unveiled its top-10 list in November, then expanded it to 30 deep in January. Baseball Prospectus revealed its top 21 Dodgers prospects in November, and FanGraphs dropped its top 52 Dodgers prospects in December.

The tippy top of these lists are very outfield heavy, with Josue De Paula, Zyhir Hope, Eduardo Quintero, and Mike Sirota dominating the top four spots. De Paula and Hope were all over top-100 prospects lists MLB-wide last year and will be again this year. We’ll dive more into MLB top-100 lists later this week as those begin to drop.

Sirota, who will be 23 years old in June, is the oldest of the group. Acquired from the Reds last January in the Gavin Lux trade, Sirota was working on a monster season, hitting .333/.452/.616 with 32 extra-base hits in 59 games between both Class-A levels, but suffered a season-ending knee injury on July 5.

Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs each had De Paula the top Dodgers prospect followed by Hope and Quintero, in that order. Baseball America went with Quintero at the top followed by De Paula, Sirota, then Hope as their top four.

“Ultimately I found Quintero to be the most well-rounded player, and the most likely to stick in center field,” Josh Norris said on a Baseball America podcast last week. “Mike Sirota had the injury that he had, and I want to see what he looks like when he comes back.”

Quintero won the California League MVP in 2025 despite getting promoted to High-A in late July. Between both Class-A levels he hit .293/.415/.508 with 19 home runs and a 152 wRC+ in 113 games, and in September was a Branch Rickey Award winner as the Dodgers’ minor league player of the year. And entering is age-20 season in 2026, Quintero is a year younger than De Paula and Hope.

“He’s a guy who’s going to shoot up these rankings because of the swing, potential for growth in the swing, potential for growth in the body, the all-around skillset,” Norris said of Quintero. “He doesn’t have a 70 on the card [on the 20-80 scouting scale] like some of the other guys, but he’s got a lot of 55s and doesn’t have any 40s either.”

In addition to those top-four outfielders, three more prospects were ranked in the top 10 of the Dodgers system by all three of Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, and FanGraphs — shortstop Emil Morales, who ended last season in Class-A Rancho Cucamonga and turned 19 in September; infielder Alex Freeland, who made his major league debut with Los Angeles in 2025; and outfielder Charles Davalan, who was drafted out of Arkansas in July with the No. 41-overall pick, which was also acquired in the Lux trade.

In all, a total of 17 prospects were ranked in the top 10 of the Dodgers system in at least one of these lists.

Player	Pos	2026 age	BA	BP	FanGraphs
Josue De Paula	OF	21	2	1	1
Eduardo Quintero	OF	20	1	3	3
Zyhir Hope	OF	21	4	2	2
Mike Sirota	OF	23	3	4	6
Emil Morales	SS	19	9	5	4
Alex Freeland	SS	24	7	6	8
Charles Davalan	OF	22	6	7	10
Jackson Ferris	LHP	22	5	15	13
Adam Serwinowski	LHP	22	14	8	11
Christian Zazueta	RHP	21	12	16	7
River Ryan	RHP	27	13	17	5
Zach Root	LHP	22	8	13	16
Joendry Vargas	SS	20	15	10	19
James Tibbs III	OF	23	26	11	9
Chase Harlan	3B	19	10	NR	24
Landyn Vidourek	OF	22	27	9	22

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/los-angeles-dodgers-prospects/107706/dodgers-prospects-outfielders

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Carlos Beltrán, Andruw Jones elected to 2026 Hall of Fame class

Outfielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in results announced by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Tuesday afternoon.

Beltrán and Jones will be inducted to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on Sunday, July 26 along with second baseman Jeff Kent, who was voted in by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee in December.

Beltrán was named on 358 of 425 ballots (84.2 percent) by the BBWAA, surpassing the 75-percent threshold required for induction in his fourth year on the ballot. For Jones, his rise in support was more methodical, starting with only 7.3 percent and 7.5 percent in 2018-19, his first two tries, barely above the five-percent needed to remain on the ballot. Jones this year received 78.4-percent support, clearing induction by 14 votes in his ninth year on the ballot.

Beltrán hit .279/.350/.486 with a 118 wRC+ with 435 home runs and 312 stolen bases in 20 big league seasons for the Royals, Astros, Mets, Giants, Cardinals, Yankees, and Rangers. A nine-time All-Star, Beltran also won three Gold Glove Awards in center field and two Silver Slugger Awards, and hit .307/.412/.609 with 16 home runs and a 169 wRC+ in 65 postseason games.

Jones is one of the best defensive center fielders ever and hit .263/.342/.497 with a 111 wRC+ and 434 home runs in his 17-year career, though was basically finished as a productive player after age 30. The Dodgers signed him to a two-year deal in 2008, his age-31 season, and he hit .158/.256/.249 in 75 games, his 35 OPS+ tied for the worst in Dodgers history in the live ball era, with a minimum of 200 plate appearances.

The biggest jump on the 2026 ballot was from pitcher Félix Hernández, who was named on 46.1 percent of ballots in his second try on the ballot, up from 20.6 percent in his first year. Chase Utley also had a sizable jump, going from 39.8 percent last year to 59.1 percent this year on his third ballot. Utley had the most votes on this ballot among players not inducted.

Cole Hamels got the most support of any first-year player on the ballot with 101 votes, 23.8 percent of the total.

Manny Ramírez received only 38.8 percent in his 10th and final year on the writers’ ballot, his 555 career home runs outweighed by his two suspensions under the MLB joint drug policy. This was his highest support in any of his 10 years on the ballot.

Torii Hunter isn’t anywhere close to induction and only got 8.7 percent of the vote this year, but that’s 16 votes more than the five-percent required for remaining on the ballot what for Hunter in 2027 will be his seventh year.

Longtime Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp received two votes in his first and now only year on the ballot. The BBWAA will release individual votes of writers who wished for their votes to be public on February 3.

Player	Year	Votes	Pct	2024 pct
Carlos Beltrán	4th	358	84.2%	70.3%
Andruw Jones	9th	333	78.4%	66.2%
Chase Utley	3rd	251	59.1%	39.8%
Andy Pettitte	8th	206	48.5%	27.9%
Félix Hernández	3rd	196	46.1%	20.6%
Alex Rodríguez	5th	170	40.0%	37.1%
Manny Ramírez	10th	165	38.8%	34.3%
Bobby Abreu	7th	131	30.8%	19.5%
Jimmy Rollins	5th	108	25.4%	18.0%
Cole Hamels	1st	101	23.8%	n/a
Dustin Pedroia	2nd	88	20.7%	11.9%
Mark Buehrle	6th	85	20.0%	11.4%
Omar Vizquel	9th	78	18.4%	17.8%
David Wright	3rd	63	14.8%	8.1%
Francisco Rodríguez	4th	50	11.8%	10.2%
Torii Hunter	6th	37	8.7%	5.1%
Ryan Braun	1st	15	3.5%	n/a
Edwin Encarnacion	1st	6	1.4%	n/a
Shin-Soo Choo	1st	3	0.7%	n/a
Hunter Pence	1st	2	0.5%	n/a
Rick Porcello	1st	2	0.5%	n/a
Matt Kemp	1st	2	0.5%	n/a
Nick Markakis	1st	1	0.2%	n/a
Alex Gordon	1st	1	0.2%	n/a

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/hall-of-fame-dodgers/109129/carlos-beltran-andruw-jones-hall-of-fame-2026

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Kyle Tucker signing ignites salary cap discussions

The Dodgers’ signing of Kyle Tucker gave opposing fans all the more reason to hate the Dodgers, and it gave fellow team owners all the more reason to loathe the Dodgers front office.

To win two consecutive championships and continue to add star talent while sporting one of the highest payrolls in baseball is the envy and ire of small market organizations. With the current collective bargaining agreement expiring after the 2026 season, an impending lockout is all but certain. Rather than discuss a salary floor to ensure that owners allocate a fair percentage of revenue towards their roster, the main issue that will be brought up this offseason will be a salary cap, notes Evan Drellich of The Athletic.

Major League Baseball owners are “raging” in the wake of Kyle Tucker’s free agency agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers and it is now “a 100 percent certainty” that the owners will push for a salary cap, one person briefed on ownership conversations who was not authorized to speak publicly told The Athletic. “These guys are going to go for a cap no matter what it takes,” the source said.

Links​

With a four-headed monster that includes Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers starting rotation on paper looks to be one of, if not the best, in baseball entering the 2026 season. What has been a dire issue over the last two seasons has been the health of the rotation, as each of the aforementioned names have missed significant time due to injury since the beginning of the 2024 season.

As a means to potentially shore up the back end of the rotation and add a relatively younger arm, the Dodgers are maintaining their interest in Milwaukee Brewers ace Freddy Peralta, notes Katie Woo of The Athletic.

The Dodgers remain interested in Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Freddy Peralta, a two-time All-Star approaching his final season before free agency. Peralta is one of the top starters on the trade market after logging a career-best 2.70 ERA over 33 starts for the National League Central champions. Given the injuries that plagued the rotation last year, trading for Peralta is worth exploring.

Andruw Jones had two more years of Hall of Fame eligibility entering this year, and he made history on Tuesday by becoming the first player from Curacao to be elected into Cooperstown. On making the Hall of Fame in his ninth year of eligibility, here is what Jones had to say on getting the call, per Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com.

“You don’t play this game to be a Hall of Famer. You play to help your team win a championship. And when you go out there and be consistent and put up numbers and then your name starts popping up [as a candidate], it’s a big honor for me, and it’s a big honor for my family.”

Former Dodger Rich Hill isn’t planning on pitching in 2026 despite spending limited time with the Kansas City Royals this past season. He also has his disagreements with Joe Kelly’s definition of retirement, as he explained on the Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast.

The main rhetorical question of the offseason: Are the Dodgers truly ruining baseball? That is what Huston Mitchell of the Los Angeles Times answers in the latest edition of Dodgers Dugout.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/dodgers-...y-peralta-andruw-jones-hall-of-fame-rich-hill

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Kyle Tucker Dodgers contract details, opt-out clauses & more

The Dodgers finalized their deal with Kyle Tucker on Wednesday, signing the outfielder to a four-year contract worth $240 million.

Tucker gets a $64 million signing bonus as part of the contract, $54 million of which will be paid this February 15 and the other $10 million on February 1, 2027, per Beth Harris and Ronald Blum of Associated Press, with the following annual salaries.

2026: $1 million
2027: $55 million
2028: $60 million player option
2029: $60 million player option

A total of $30 million of the salaries are deferred — $10 million each year from 2027-29 — which is not uncommon among Dodgers contracts of late. Each year’s $10 million deferred salary will be paid out at $1 million per year every December 1 from 2036-45, again per AP.

Tucker is one of 10 Dodgers with deferred money in their contract, with a total of $1.0945 billion scheduled to be paid out between 2028-47. Shohei Ohtani’s $680 million deferred — 97 percent of his 10-year contract — is the outlier, with deferred money in the other nine contracts ranging between 12.5 percent (Tucker) and 36.3 percent (Blake Snell) of the total contract guarantee.

The deferrals in Tucker’s contract reduce the average annual value from $60 million to $57,195,945 per year.

Tucker has two opportunities to opt out of the contract — after either the 2027 or 2028 seasons. The Dodgers typically don’t include opt-outs, but given that Tucker was also being heavily pursued by the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets, including the ability for Tucker to leave potentially after two seasons was a way for the Dodgers to sweeten the deal.

“In two years, we’ll know a lot more about a lot of things than we do know, and just because he opts out doesn’t mean that we won’t be there to try to sign up,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “In any deal you’d prefer to to have an opt-out. Generally speaking, I think they’re very poorly priced in the market, which is why we have avoided them by and large. In this case, it just made sense for a confluence of reasons.”

Because Tucker declined a qualifying offer from the Chicago Cubs in November, the Dodgers will forfeit a pair of picks in the 2026 MLB Draft. Having already ceded their second and fifth-round selections for signing fellow qualifying-offer free agent Edwin Díaz in December, the Dodgers for signing Tucker will forfeit their third and sixth-round picks this July. That will likely leave the Dodgers with a draft pool of something like $4 million or just under, which would be their lowest in the 15 years of the draft slotting system.

“The depth of our system put us in a position where, while the cost is still meaningful, it wasn’t as significant. We have a very strong system up top,” Friedman said. “But even more than that, I think the depth of our system allows us this one year to have our food budget for the draft meetings exceed our signing bonuses. It’s not great by any means, but just trying to balance that with doing everything we could to put ourselves in the best position to win a championship in 2026.”

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/dodgers-payroll/109102/kyle-tucker-contract-dodgers

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Dave Roberts is keeping number 30, so Kyle Tucker will wear 23 with Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — To say that Dave Roberts and Maury Wills were close is an understatement. Wills, the Dodgers’ all-time stolen base leader and six-time National League steals leader, took the base-stealing Roberts under his wing when Roberts was playing, and became a confidant for two decades, until Wills died in 2022.

“He was a friend, a father, a mentor, all of the above for me. This one is a tough one,” Roberts said after Wills’ death three and a half years ago. “He showed me to appreciate my craft, and what it is to be a big leaguer. He just loved to teach. A lot of where I get my excitement, my passion, my love for players is from him.”

Twenty-three different Dodgers players have worn number 30 since Wills last donned the uniform in 1972, including Roberts from 2002-04 when he was playing for the Dodgers. Roberts resumed wearing number 30 when he took over as manager in Los Angeles for the 2016 season.

So it was going to be a tall order for Kyle Tucker, who wore number 30 in his last five seasons with the Houston Astros, and also in 2025 with the Chicago Cubs, to keep wearing that same number with the Dodgers. But he had to at least try.

“I kind of knew the reasoning behind having the number 30, but I was like, I’m just gonna take a shot in the dark here and see what happens,” Tucker said during his introductory press conference at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday. “I wasn’t necessarily expecting it.”

“It was a fun conversation Tuck and I had, and it was more — you know, Maury and I just had a great relationship,” Roberts said Wednesday. “One of the things that he was like, ‘Gosh, when I die I hope no one else wears that number.’ It’s really near and dear to me, so we talked about it.”

The Dodgers typically only retire uniform numbers of Hall of Famers who go into Cooperstown representing the team, with only two exceptions to date — Jim Gilliam and Fernando Valenzuela. Roberts is well on his way down the Hall of Fame path, having won three championships and five pennants in his 10 years on the job.

Roberts is one of only 11 managers to win the World Series at least three times. Nine of the other 10 are in the Hall of Fame, and Bruce Bochy will likely join them as early as 2027, depending on whether he decides to keep managing. Same for the 16 National League/American League managers with at least five pennants under their belt — 14 already in Cooperstown, plus Bochy and Roberts.

In other words, Roberts will likely have a plaque of his own in the Hall of Fame one day, and the number 30 will be retired at Dodger Stadium. He’ll be the last one to wear it.

Another connection to Wills is that in 2003, the middle year of Roberts’ three seasons playing in Los Angeles, he was teammates with utility man Jason Romano, who is now Tucker’s agent at Excel Sports.

With 30 unavailable, Tucker chose to wear number 23 with the Dodgers. That was the number worn by Michael Conforto, who’s one year with the Dodgers last season did not work out as either side planned. Though Tucker is going to play right field — with Teoscar Hernández shifting to left field, which both Roberts and Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman confirmed on Wednesday — he’s essentially directly replacing Conforto, who played left field last season. So perhaps it’s fitting that he’s wearing the same number.

But Tucker had a different reason for choosing it. That was the number worn by Michael Brantley, the longtime Guardians outfielder who played the final five seasons of his career (2019-23) in Houston, alongside Tucker’s rise to a full-time player and eventual four-time All-Star.

“With me going to 23 — I mean, [Roberts] looking up to Maury Wills and kind of being his mentor and everything coming up, and him wanting to wear that for him — kind of the same thing with me, with 23 and Michael Brantley,” Tucker explained. “He’s the guy I hung out with a lot coming up in Houston, and he was a phenomenal ballplayer and one of my close friends. That played a big part into my choice going with that.”

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/los-ange...ave-roberts-number-30-kyle-tucker-maury-wills

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

How Kyle Tucker fits in the Dodgers lineup

LOS ANGELES — Dodgers outfield production in 2025 was lacking, making it a clear need this offseason. They compensated for that by adding Kyle Tucker, who was the consensus top free agent available, rated the No. 1 free agent at the beginning of the offseason by ESPN, FanGraphs, The Athletic, MLB Trade Rumors, Baseball Prospectus, Yahoo Sports, MLB.com, and CBS Sports.

The cost was heavy, guaranteeing $240 million on a four-year contract, and even adding two chances for Tucker to opt out of the deal, such was the demand for his services on the market. But the Dodgers have the money, and they’ve been more than willing to spend it, with record-setting competitive balance tax payments the last two seasons. They also have the prospect depth to absorb the loss of draft picks for signing Tucker (and for signing Edwin Díaz, too).

They thought Tucker was worth that kind of investment.

“Anytime you can add a guy to your lineup that is arguably better against same-side pitching — there’s really no holes in what he does offensively. Really balanced splits, versus right, versus left, incredible decision making, really good bat-to-ball skills,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Wednesday. “Just the way that will kind of complement and help further round out our offense, something we thought that would be significant in terms of the odds increasing on our championship quest.”

Dodgers outfielders as a group in 2025 hit .240/.299/.415, with a 98 wRC+ that ranked 17th among 30 MLB teams. Tucker is a career .273/.358/.507 hitter with a 138 wRC+, and has posted a 130 wRC+ or better in each of the last five seasons. Dodgers outfielders last year totaled 4.3 fWAR as a group (Andy Pages accounted for 4.1 fWAR himself), while Tucker has tallied 4.2 fWAR or higher five years in a row, averaging 4.7.

Since the start of 2021, Tucker is one of only four major league hitters with an isolated power — slugging percentage minus batting average — .200 or above combined with a strikeout rate of 16 percent or lower, along with fellow star players Mookie Betts, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and José Ramírez.

The Dodgers in 2025 had a 21.9-percent strikeout rate as a team, 12th-lowest in the majors. Adding Tucker should help that.

But where does he fit in the Dodgers lineup? Last week, I asked this question on The Feed here at True Blue LA, and got various responses, ranging between Tucker batting as high as second or as low as fifth. But either way, he’ll be in a prime spot in a suddenly more-loaded lineup with him on board.

“I was talking with Gomer [general manager Brandon Gomes] and Andrew [Friedman] recently, and it’s just fun to think about where Kyle is going to hit in the lineup,” manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday. “He’ll be in the top third. I don’t want you guys to hold me to it right now, but [hitting] second or third seems to make sense.”

It’s still only January 22, still a month from spring training games starting and nine weeks from opening day. A lot can happen between now and then. But let’s unpack what Roberts said on Wednesday.

For the last two seasons, Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman have been the Dodgers’ big three atop the lineup. If Tucker hits second or third, one of those other three is moving. It won’t be Ohtani, who seems entrenched in the leadoff spot. Betts is coming off his worst offensive season, but the Dodgers have been loath to move him down in the lineup. It took until Game 5 of the World Series for Betts to shift down in the lineup to third, his first start outside of the top two since 2021. Betts hit third in Games 5 and 6, and hit fourth in Game 7.

Freeman in four years with the Dodgers has hit mostly second or third. He batted cleanup four times in September 2024, but those were only against left-handed pitchers to help split up the left-handed hitters in the lineup. That continued into 2025, but Freeman also hit cleanup sometimes against right-handed pitchers, and hit fourth a total of 47 times in the regular season, and batted cleanup eight times in 17 postseason games.

I think Freeman is the most likely of the Big Three to move down in the lineup. Putting Tucker second or third would mean at least two of the Dodgers’ first three hitters batting lefty, but they happen to be two of the best lefty-on-lefty hitters in the game.

Over the last five seasons Tucker hit .270/.340/.511 against southpaws, with his 136 wRC+ against same-handed pitchers third-best in the majors among batters with at least 300 such plate appearances, trailing only Yordan Alvarez (166 wRC+) and Ohtani (140).

Freeman hitting cleanup would mean three lefties in the first four hitters, which is generally fine, but can cause problems later in the game, either with an opposing manager bringing in a left-handed pitcher to handle a run of lefty batters or if trying to extend a southpaw starting pitcher a little bit deeper into the game. Last year the Dodgers occasionally countered the latter by inserting a right-handed batter before Freeman, usually Teoscar Hernández or Will Smith.

Roberts before last year’s opener mentioned making a lefty pitcher pay the “Teoscar tax” to get through that portion of the lineup, which worked out swimmingly when Hernández hit a game-winning three-run home run off Tigers ace Tarik Skubal to turn the game around.

But whether Freeman bats fourth or fifth still highlights the depth of the Dodgers lineup now with Tucker on board. After Freeman, there will be one or both of Smith or Hernández, and that’s before considering Max Muncy, Tommy Edman, and Andy Pages.

No matter how you slice it, that’s a formidable lineup top to bottom.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/los-angeles-dodgers-news-notes/109174/kyle-tucker-dodgers-lineup

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Shohei Ohtani named MLB’s best player entering 2026

For the second consecutive year and for the fourth time since 2022, Shohei Ohtani was named as the best player in baseball by MLB Network entering the 2026 season. Ohtani beat out Aaron Judge for a second consecutive year, with Bobby Witt Jr. once again placing third behind the pair of two-time reigning MVPs.

Ohtani has had arguably the best start to his Dodgers tenure over his first two seasons, as he won the NL MVP in both 2024 and 2025 while helping the Dodgers become the first repeat champions in 25 years. He became the first Dodger to hit 50 home runs in a season in 2024 (finishing with 54) and outdid himself this past season with a new franchise single-season home run record of 55. Not to mention the fact that he became the founding member of the 50-50 club, a feat that no other player has come close to achieving thus far.

Ohtani was named the best player in baseball following the 2021 and 2022 season, but finished as runner-up to Ronald Acuña Jr. following the 2023 season after the latter posted the first 40-70 season in baseball history. Three other Dodgers finished in the top-20 of MLB Network’s list, with Will Smith ranked at no. 20, Mookie Betts at no. 18 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto at no. 13. Both Freddie Freeman and Kyle Tucker placed just outside the top-20, coming in at no. 22 and 21 respectively.

Links​

Dylan Hernandez and Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (soon to be with the California Post) appeared on The Show with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman to discuss the Dodgers offseason. During the episode, the four discussed the enigmatic Ohtani and how it’s been a challenge to understand what he is like as a person and off the field.

Per Hernandez: “In all this time that I’ve known [Ohtani], I’ve never had a human-to-human conversation with him— it’s always been athlete-to-reporter. That’s very rare… He’s a complete mystery. I’ve never seen anybody quite like this.”

Jayson Stark of The Athletic provides a sneak peak into the 2027 Hall of Fame class, with notable names such as Buster Posey and Jon Lester entering their first year of eligibility. Chase Utley, who finished with 59.1 percent of votes on the 2026 ballot, still has a long ways to go, but Stark argues that Utley’s career hit total could give him a compelling case considering Posey, a three-time champion and the 2012 NL MVP, retired with 1500 hits to his name.

It’s a big leap from 59.1 percent to 75 percent, so 2027 might be a longshot for election. But if Posey is about to get elected with only 1,500 hits, Utley’s 1,855 won’t feel like much of an obstacle anymore.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/dodgers-...ni-named-best-player-chase-utley-hall-of-fame

 

[Los Angeles Dodgers]

Yankees claim Michael Siani off waivers from Dodgers

The New York Yankees claimed Michael Siani off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, continuing a busy offseason transactionally for the center fielder in his fourth organization in the last four months.

Siani’s time on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster lasted 40 days, until he was designated for assignment on Wednesday as outfielder Kyle Tucker’s four-year, $240 million contract was finalized by Los Angeles.

The 26-year-old has played parts of the last four seasons in the majors with the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals. A .221/.271/.270 career hitter, Siani is much more known for his outfield defense, with 17 career Outs Above Average in only 1,014 innings, a little over two-thirds of a season.

Siani ended last season with the Cardinals, for whom the bulk of his major league playing time has come. He was claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Braves on November 6, then claimed off waivers by the Dodgers on December 12, before getting claimed on Friday by the Yankees.

Source: https://www.truebluela.com/dodgers-roster/109257/michael-siani-yankees-dodgers-waivers