MLB insider deserves a prize for worst take about the NY Mets signing Kyle Tucker

In a world where you win trophies for participating, it’s nice to hand out ribbons for people dining something spectacular. Not every award is always a positive one, though. If there was a plaque for bad baseball takes, Jon Heyman’s point on The New York Mets and Kyle Tucker would get one. Let’s name the whole wing after it.

Heyman questions the match with Tucker and the Mets, calling it “too much of a good thing.” And I suppose he stops after one plate at the buffet.

We can see where Heyman and any others are at least coming from. Another corner outfielder making $50 million per season seems to put all of the eggs into one basket. Each are left-handed and have some questionable defense, Tucker a former Gold Glove winner who hasn’t quite lived up to that standard each year and Juan Soto a finalist for the award in 2024. In any case, there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing unless you let it be.

Kyle Tucker only hinders the Mets if they let it

The Mets can go one of two directions. If we’re looking at it from a cost perspective, they can either spend $50 million on Tucker or three players. Framber Valdez plus a pair of outfielders might get all of that money spent. We can allocate about $30-35 million on Valdez, another $6 million on Austin Hays, and whatever remains on a player like Harrison Bader. Heck, they might even have enough left over to…not really do much with.

The Mets have pitching problems and investing there wouldn’t be unwise. However, the free agent pool is slim. They suddenly have an opportunity to do something no one thought was possible and nab yet another star player capable of entering the MVP race.

Tucker is a natural to go into right field and give the Mets their excuse to move Soto to left field where he’ll have less ground to cover at Citi Field. The outfield defense should theoretically improve with just that switch although it’s not going to have their outfielders lining up to receive Gold Gloves on Opening Day 2027.

Nothing about this Mets offseason has gone by the natural order of things. Their best first base option is a guy who has one game at it, Jorge Polanco. They passed over multiple reasonable free agents, Tatsuya Imai and Kazuma Okamoto being two that wouldn’t have cost them draft picks and would have immediately fit in.

Financially, Tucker pushes the Mets into an uncomfortable territory. At about $17 million hypothetical dollars more than it would have been if they simply re-signed Pete Alonso, it’s a big investment that is sure to leave a hole in the lineup somewhere else.

This is where the Mets need to have faith in a couple of their younger players. They’ll need Carson Benge to be ready quickly and will ask other near-MLB ready players to do the same. As far as pitching goes, signing Tucker takes them out of the running for a free agent, but might be the push needed to pay the price for Freddy Peralta whose $8 million contract has added appeal.

Roster redundancy has been commonplace on a smaller scale for the Mets in David Stearns’ two years. Joey Wendle and Zack Short? Harrison Bader and Tyrone Taylor? By several measures, even Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio have a lot in common to co-exist for too long.

Soto and Tucker together on the same roster is never a problem until the Mets begin to make excuses. Similar players in many ways, it’s the best solution of all for them rather than doing something like sign Cody Bellinger instead to a lengthier contract.