Kyle Tucker’s agent isn’t Scott Boras, NY Mets can benefit if he behaves like he is

When you hire Scott Boras you ask him to come up with cringy puns and get you lots of money. He’s always successful at the first. The second might take some time. New York Mets fans got to experience the immediate downside of sometimes having Boras do your negotiating.

Pete Alonso settled on what became a one-year deal last offseason with a chance to turn into two years. He ended up coming out on top with the five-year deal from the Baltimore Orioles worth $155 million. Originally turning down a reported $158 million over 7 years from the Mets back in 2023, it financially worked out well for the Polar Bear.

He’s not the only one to take on this strategy. Matt Chapman is an example of someone who already did and benefited. Cody Bellinger and Alex Bregman should this winter. Kyle Tucker is represented by Excel Sports Management, but if his representation was to take a play out of the Boras book, it could lead him directly to the Mets.

If teams are hesitant to pay Kyle Tucker, the Mets are the team to give him a shorter and fatter contract

Tucker didn’t have an impressive season with the Chicago Cubs. He somehow hit one less home run (22) than he had the year prior despite more than 250 extra chances than he had in 2024 in his final year with the Houston Astros. It was nothing close to the kind of pre-free agent season he needed.

His position is probably closer to Bregman than anything else with a key difference being age. Bregman was a little older than Tucker when he went into free agency, but did piece together a good yet not elite season in 2024. He got paid $36.6 million by the Boston Red Sox last year then chose to walk away from over $80 million in the next two seasons. Has the market changed behind the scenes or was Bregman’s ascent strong enough to convince him and Boras that there is a 5 or more year-deal out there. Considering the way Alonso’s market played out, it’s feeling like they were right.

Something in the same style of what Bregman got from Boston could fit with the Mets. It would actually make sense with the way they’ve behaved this offseason. Waiting for the Tucker market to fall to a point where he is willing to sign for $40 million to help with the mortgage this year and re-enter free agency next offseason isn’t far-fetched. The biggest risk here is with the CBA running out on December 1, 2026, something could happen to spoil his market even more so.

Tucker is the only drop-kick the Mets have in free agency to get true forgiveness from fans stirring about the loss of Alonso and Diaz as well as the trade of Nimmo. A passive approach with him can work as long as the rest of the league gets cold feet on making him their next $400 million star.