I don’t want to make a huge deal out of this because we’re in the middle of the season and contract stuff can be distracting. But same time it’s impossible to ignore the implications on the market when an objectively worse player than Kyle Tucker gets 14 years and half a billion dollars from a publicly traded company.
Did you know the Blue Jays are a public company?
They’re owned by a Canadian media company, Rogers Communications. Because it’s a public company, they have a fiduciary responsibility which means they’re required by law to act in the best interests of shareholders. There’s a board of directors and all this fancy shit that comes with being a publicly traded company.
And that fancy shit just approved half a billion dollars on one baseball player.
It’s important for a number of reasons. My focus is on the Cubs but I’ll first concede it’s good to see a major extension in April while people see a future lockout as inevitable. That’s a good sign for the strength and health of baseball – you’re seeing a number of clubs commit 9 figure contracts to homegrown superstars.
Another important reason is that a publicly traded company just invested half a billion dollars in one baseball player. They’re a big market club, but certainly not the biggest. So if they think it’s a good investment for their shareholders, what excuse does Tom Ricketts have to not at least offer the exact same kind of contract to Kyle Tucker?
And that’s before we consider Kyle Tucker is a much better player than Vlad Jr.
A starting point thus would be at least $35,000,000 per year which is exactly what people have speculated.
And if that number is deemed to be in the best interest of Blue Jays shareholders, then wouldn’t it make sense the Cubs have room in their $371,000,000 annual surplus to extend Kyle Tucker?
The answer is yes. It makes plenty of sense to everyone except for Tom Ricketts, who is just trying to break even every year.
Regardless of his intent – there’s no doubt that Kyle Tucker is going to be expensive. And since we’ve seen plenty of lesser-fortunate clubs extend themselves above the Cubs already, it’s only logical to assume that the Cubs have the means to do the same for Kyle Tucker.
And if they don’t, it’s simply because Tom Ricketts doesn’t want to spend what it takes to compete. Instead he’d rather keep milking Cubs fans for everything we’re worth until the real estate portfolio is finally complete. Those are the two options and it’s never been more cut and dry.
Pesonally I like to think Tom isn’t too stupid, but he’ll have to prove me wrong on this occasion. I have no choice.
For more on Kyle Tucker’s extension, the 2025 Cubs and why the time is now, check out today’s most recent Monday Morning Cubs Show