Chicago Cubs will still pass on Kyle Tucker despite plummeting free agent value, per insider

The Chicago Cubs acquired right fielder Kyle Tucker in a three-for-one trade with the Houston Astros in December. They knew full well that the deal had the potential to backfire spectacularly.

Tucker was in the last year of his contract and the Cubs offered up Isaac Paredes, Heyden Wesneski, and no. 1 draft pick Cam Smith for what very well could be a one season-and-done relationship with the multi-tool star.

It’s open to debate whether the deal backfired on the Cubs or not. The team did get to the NLDS. The four-time All-Star helped motor their regular season to a great extent, allowing them to get to a top-tier placement in the first half of the season that all but ensured a playoff spot.

Tucker’s flat-lining production after July 1, however, contributed to a second-half dip in an offense that was previously considered elite. A hand fracture in June led to a career-worst extended slump from July to mid-September. A subsequent calf strain near the end of the regular season put him on the shelf for more than three weeks and hobbled him throughout the playoffs.

At the end of the day, Tucker was a big reason for the Cubs’ early success, but, ultimately, also a big factor in the Cubs’ ultimate downfall.

The plummeting value of Kyle Tucker

And now the 28-year-old will hit the open free agency market.

Mid-season expectations of a $400-$600 million contract over 9-10 years have been adjusted accordingly after an uneven 2025, which came after a 2024 half-lost due to injury.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers recently talked about the updated realistic Tucker price tag.

“Low-end, 200…high-end, 425…probably somewhere closer to 300, maybe more,” Rogers said on ESPN 1000’s Carmen and Jurko show. “The over/under, 325-350, somewhere in that range…It’s no longer among the elites…”

And it’s looking more and more likely that the Cubs won’t even meet that reduced asking price.

Chicago Cubs will likely pass on signing Tucker

Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic recently talked about the Cubs’ willingness to walk away from a Tucker bidding war in an appearance on the Foul Territory show. Doubling down on “the Cubs were never in on re-signing Tucker” belief ESPN’s Jesse Rogers expressed last week, the insider feels acquiring Tucker was always going to be a 2025 thing only.

“I think they looked at this as a one-year thing and if things kind of worked in their favor, somehow, maybe they’d be able to re-sign him,” Sharma said. “The reality is, the Cubs do not spend like a Top 5 market. They are a Top 3 market and they spend like a middle-tier market. That’s just how it is…So, I don’t think they’re going to re-sign him. I’d be surprised by it.”

Sharma also talked up the right fielder’s diminished value, even as he enters the offseason as, arguably, the top position player on the free agent market.

“I don’t think he’s going to get that $400 million deal we were talking about six months ago,” Sharma asserted. “Maybe in the 200s and I still don’t think the Cubs would sign him because it’s going to be six or seven years, or something like that, and that’s just not where the Cubs’ heads are at…

“I do think the injuries and the ineffectiveness and maybe that calf injury, especially at the end of the year and how long it took for him to come back from that, may color some of his time with the Cubs.”

The fond farewell?

Last Saturday, shortly after Chicago was eliminated from the NLDS by the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field, Tucker was asked about his future with the Cubs. His response was as close to a fond farewell as one could get without actually saying goodbye.

“We’ll see what happens,” he told ESPN. “I don’t know what the future is going to hold. If not, it was an honor playing with all these guys and I wish everyone the best of luck, whether it’s playing next year or not with them. It’s a really fun group to be a part of.”

It’s thought that with top prospect Owen Caissie waiting in the wings and Seiya Suzuki also in the mix for right field, the Cubs front office/ownership may likely pass on Tucker, who had polar opposite half-seasons and whose price tag may have spooked them all along.

The New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, and Boston Red Sox are considered favorites in the offseason pursuit of Tucker.

The post Chicago Cubs will still pass on Kyle Tucker despite plummeting free agent value, per insider appeared first on ChiCitySports.

Source: https://www.chicitysports.com/chicago-cubs-kyle-tucker-free-agency-update