Baseball Isn’t Boring
West Coast Bias: Dodgers Sign Kyle Tucker & Mets Pivot To Bo Bichette
16 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What are the initial reactions to Kyle Tucker signing with the Dodgers?
Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring.
You don't get bored by baseball. Okay, one thing the game needs is more people like you. You. You. You. You. You. You.
You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You.
Another year of West Coast bias. First and foremost, thank you to everyone that listened to this thing last season in our inaugural season. It was a good time. We were kind of all over the place just because baseball is a grind. And so we have to make it work.
with uh with what the people want so to every guest that was on here thank you all the new followers evan producer evan who's joining me for for a little bit of a reaction today thank you for everything that you do my friend uh and and thank you to everyone here at baseball isn't boring it's it's it's a very uh it's a very tight-knit family super humbled to have a small part of uh of uh the platform here to to rip about and yap about baseball
And that's what we're going to do. My original inaugural show for this season was not going to be this show. But I was on a plane yesterday and somehow, someway, the Los Angeles Dodgers land Kyle Tucker on a four-year, $240 million contract. And...
When the Dodgers signed Diaz earlier this offseason, and now that the Dodgers have signed Kyle Tucker, I thought, I need to talk to my friend Evan O'Brien, producer Evan, about this because he's a Mets apologist. If you're watching the YouTube, he's got his Mets propaganda on. There you go. So I just wanted to ask you, let's start here. But we'll dive into all the angles, if you will, right?
But as a Mets fan, you let Edwin Diaz go, and now you strike out on Kyle Tucker. So as a Mets fan, what's the 30,000-foot overview of how you're feeling right now?
So it's it's been like such a bizarre offseason because obviously all the stories come out right when the season ends about how toxic the locker room was and how, you know, they needed a change of personnel. So it's like obviously right when you lose all the guys that we've traded away and or lost and frayed and see whether it's Pete Alonzo, Edwin Diaz, Jeff McNeil.
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Chapter 2: How do the Mets feel about losing out on Kyle Tucker?
And listen, I didn't say this to you because I wanted to save it until now. The timing is just serendipitous. In my opinion, either the Red Sox or the Mets had to sign Boba shit. That's kind of where it made sense. In all of this, because we were also texting about this, Where are the New York Yankees?
I know that all of this money is being thrown around by, you know, the Dodgers, by the Red Sox, even right. You know, they went out and got Ranger Suarez and they've made some moves to kind of up it. The Tampa Bay Rays got better with a trade last night. They went out and got Gavin Lux. Like that's that's not a quiet move either.
And now the Mets, obviously different leagues, but nonetheless, Steve Cohen obviously kind of knew to quote something that did happen at Citi Field. He knew his ass was in the jackpot. And so he went and got Bubba's shit, right? And so it's, and listen, great. I actually think given what it is, I 100% agree with you. There's not a lot of long-term guys out there.
Like there just really isn't like, If Cody Bellinger can get seven years, good for him, right? Like, good for you, man. But even then, Kyle, I don't think Kyle Tucker, I honestly thought Kyle Tucker was going to sign with the Blue Jays. Like, I think that was kind of, I think, the given from everybody. But the one thing, I have to point out two things here as a Dodgers apologist.
Because I hear what you're saying. Because the Dodgers were here not too long ago either during the Frank McCourt era where they were kind of like missing out on these dudes for a litany of reasons. May have been some clubhouse culture issues as well.
And it's interesting that you brought that part up because Pete Alonso going to the Orioles for what he did is not kind of out of the question, if that makes sense. I was surprised by that. But that's all, again, going back to what the AL East is doing. Everybody's getting better except the Yankees. Exactly.
But as we look at the Dodgers, the Dodgers were two outs away from losing the World Series. Yeah. I have to emphasize that. It's very important. Yep. The Toronto Blue Jays were two outs away from winning the World Series. They got Otani to Dundee. They more or less got Kyle Tucker to Dundee. So they've been in on it, right?
They obviously rolled up the Brinks truck, rolled out the Brinks truck for Baby Guerrero. And then you also throw in the part of, Oh, Boba shit today. I saw this this morning when I woke up that I guess he's expressed concerns about that, you know, kind of career longevity in Toronto on the turf, which is a very valid point in my humble opinion.
And then he signs with the Mets and, and to your point, I knew. I mean, again, I said the Red Sox or the Mets probably had to make that move. It doesn't make sense because you have like three second baseman on the roster.
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Chapter 3: What does the signing of Bo Bichette mean for the Mets?
And again, going back to kind of where it's like, is there a culture thing we don't know about there? You know, is there is there something else that we are on? Like, I know that Bryce Harper is a red ass, but in a good way. Like, I think every clubhouse needs to have that guy, you know, and it's not like to have schmucks over there. Right. I mean, you have Trey Turner. You have it all.
You have it there. Really, the only issue is you don't have Ranger Suarez now, but that's okay. I don't look at it as a loss, per se, because he's a good starter. He's a solid Major League horse, but he's not going to get you over the hump. He's not going to go out. He's not pitching Game 7 of the World Series for you unless he has to. Exactly.
But it's in all of it, though, is is Boba shit would have made a lot of sense in that lineup for a whole bunch of reasons. And so so as a fellow NL East guy, what stands out to you about that? Like, what are we missing here?
So one, I mean, when I was reading that as we were just doing the instant, you know, how I felt last night about the Bichette thing, I was shocked that it said the Mets because from, you know, like whichever insider you want to believe, whether it's Passon, Murray, Nightingale, Rosenthal, you name it, Sherman, Heyman, every one of them said the Phillies were basically running away with it.
Now, I think every one of them also acknowledged that once Kyle Tucker left, every team is probably running towards another guy and being like, Hey, so we might've not had that cash two seconds ago, but now we got that cash now because we didn't give it to him. So I think that's probably what the Mets ended up doing. They went from, Hey, we have no offer.
Phillies just give you whatever you want and you're going to go there as compared to like, okay, we lost out on him. We'll give you a, I don't even know what his AAV ended up being on this, but probably like 30 mil a year now. So, um,
And then I think the other thing with the Phillies that's kind of tricky, and I think why they're kind of stuck in the mud as compared to the Dodgers, is one, they have the same situation going on as the Dodgers where the regular season, you can pretty much fast forward to the postseason with the Phillies the past couple of years with their roster.
Because it's like the Mets, it's like, oh man, we added all this stuff, but you still have to flip a coin as to whether or not we're going to make it every year. The Phillies have made it every year, but... But I think the biggest thing that's holding them back and why it's kind of nuts that they didn't get Bichette is the Dodgers.
It's like, hey, we won a World Series, but now we're going to go out and add Tanner Scott and Blake Snell. Hey, we won a World Series, but now we're going to go out and add Kyle Tucker and Edwin Diaz because we were good enough to win it, but now we're even better. Whereas the Phillies right now, it does feel like they're stuck in the mud because it's like,
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of the Dodgers' aggressive offseason strategy?
This is what the market is saying he's going to get. This is where we're at. What do we got to do to kind of get here? Exactly.
And
Listen, I don't know if maybe it was with the Blue Jays. Never in a million years did I ever think someone would say, hey, 10 years, it's not going to make it happen. That's kind of crazy. But to your point, Toronto's a great city, but there's the exchange rate. There's a little extra pain in the ass to kind of move around the whole thing. But again, I'm just more intrigued that...
I mean, clearly he picked the Dodgers for a lot of the things you just listed. That brother is going to be quietly doing what he's going to do. And all anyone's going to care about is what the top of the lineup is going to do. Exactly. Going to be protected. And like you said, when it comes to media obligations, all that jazz, they're not going to want to talk to Kyle Tucker.
They're going to want to talk to Shohei Otani. They're going to want to talk to Mookie Betts. They're going to want to talk to Roki Sasaki, Yoshinobu Yamamoto. There's a whole list of dudes where they're going to want to talk about. Yeah. So it's a win-win, right? And so, so it's, listen, I just think the last thing I wanted to touch on, cause you're talking about a lockout.
If this is what the precipice is of a lockout and you're just going to blame the Dodgers, then that lockout's going to be so long, it's just going to not be a good time. And again, I know that thing you posted last night wasn't just, it's just fun. Exactly. But in the grand scheme of things, like Steve Cohen's trying to do the same thing, right? The Dodgers are doing it. The Phillies...
are spending money. The Orioles are spending money, you know, and then you have kind of your list of usual suspects. The Blue Jays are trying to spend money. The Cubs just went out and got Bregman. The Red Sox are spending money. So how is it that the Dodgers are the ones that are breaking kind of all of this and that they're the reason that we have to go into a lockout?
Yeah, and it feels like I've always, every time, you know, as much as I say that because it's just nutty how you're like, all right, the Dodgers won the second World Series. Maybe they'll chill out a little more and just let Alex Cole be their left fielder for a year, you know, have one weakness in their entire lineup, no big deal. And then they get the bang guy.
I think that's just the immediate reaction from everybody. But my view on it is like these guys bought into ownership, obviously to make money, But you could very easily sell and make a ton more than you're making on the revenue that you get from the team, I bet. Right. You could like it's like as much as the Pirates owners like we can't be competitive. It's like, guess what, dude?
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Chapter 5: How do the recent signings reflect on the Mets' roster strategy?
And if it ends up costing them $240 million, $260 million, $300 million, they're unopposed to it because it makes sense for them because they'll find another way to leverage it somewhere else. And that's how bankers work. It's all about leverage. Steve Cohen does that. You don't think he didn't leverage that Soto deal in some capacity elsewhere. He absolutely did.
And marketing and other factors like that to try to recoup that money. But the resources, what it all boils down to is, is that's a part of the resources is how you're going to do that. We can talk about this for hours. I'm just literally what I'm trying to do this year is I'm trying to enjoy the season because I think the lockout is going to be long and it's going to stink.
Yes, but I want to enjoy it. And one of my favorite people to yap about baseball with, Evan O'Brien, one of our producers here at Baseball Isn't Boring, Mets apologist. Thank you for joining me. I am so sorry that you didn't get Kyle Tucker, but congratulations on getting Boba Shett.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, no, it should be. And it should be interesting because, I mean, that's that's kind of the fun thing about the offseason, as I know, Rob and plenty of others who have to cover it every day and have to, you know, try to hear what the rumors are on or like, come on, dude, like I want a month where I could just chill before the year. But. It is kind of fun as a fan.
I mean, it definitely stinks when there's a quiet periods, but it's definitely fun as a fan when stuff happens and then you're like, all right, so this happened. And then this could correlate to this. And then this, you try to get in the GM's mind. It is kind of a fun time. So I don't, I don't hate that part of it, even though it goes on never ending, but it's a good time.
One of the things that I think that they need to CBA on is there has to be a signing period like from here to here. And that's it. If you don't do it during then have a nice life. Like, but, but, but I think that's what's going to get more eyes on the game. Cause like, listen, Kyle Tucker signs yesterday, right? It's all over the internet, all over the internet. Yeah.
When Pete Alonzo signed with the Orioles, yeah, it was a big thing, but it wasn't as big as what the Dodgers just did. Right. And so that there's levels to this thing and you kind of have to find that medium in order for it to work. And if they had a signing period, kind of like the NBA.
Yeah.
What do I know? What do I know, Evan? I don't know anything. Well, this has been another episode of West Coast Bias here on Baseball Isn't Boring. If you're not following our socials, please go follow them. At BB Isn't Boring. I'm sure when we share this, you'll find our personal socials. Give us a follow, too. And more importantly, thank you for listening. Thank you for joining.
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