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RED SOX, TUCKER AGREE TO TERMS
MLB's top free agent off the board

By MLB.com staff
02/16/2026

MLB.com's top free agent target is finally off the board to an AL East team -- although not the one you originally thought. Kyle Tucker has signed a five-year, $252 million deal with the Boxton Red SOx that also includes $42 million in deferred money that will be paid out beginning in 2035. His luxury tax hit will be just over $50 million per year ($50.4 million to be exact), but in terms of real dollars, he'll be paid $210 million over the next five seasons.

As a result of the signing, the Red Sox as a first-time CBT payor in 2025 will forfeit their second-highest and fifth-highest picks, and will also forfeit $1M in international bonus pool money for the 2027 class. The Cubs will also receive the highest form of draft compensation with a Competitive Balance Round A selection after the first round of the draft.

Red Sox PBO Craig Breslow will hold a press conference tomorrow announcing the signing, with Tucker expected to attend and take questions. In recent weeks, the Red Sox had picked up some steam in regards to potentially be a landing spot, but most had put their chances far below others like the Mets or Blue Jays.

It's a big surprise, as it was thought that the Red Sox had too many outfielders at the outset of the offseason, which is what led them to eventually trade Jarren Duran to the Nationals to get MacKenzie Gore. Now that they have signed the biggest free agent on the market, they'll likely need to facilitate another trade as there is a new logjam.

Who would that involve? Roman Anthony for sure isn't getting traded and it's pretty unlikely they move Wilyer Abreu, who is probably going to move over to left field to accommodate Tucker. That leaves Ceddanne Rafaela or Masataka Yoshida, who is a DH-only bat at this point.

Rafaela is coming off a Gold Glove-season in which he also put up a .732 OPS (98 OPS+, 99 wRC+), making him basically a league-average offensive player with a ton of defensive upside at multiple high-value positions. A team like Detroit, who still isn't really settled at either center field or shortstop, would be a good fit for Rafaela with his arbitration years already cheaply bought out, but would likely cost them someone like Kevin McGonigle, Bryce Rainer, or Max Clark; or mulitple B-level prospects.

Yoshida is nearly unmovable at this point as he's limited to just the aforementioned DH duty at this point in his career, and doesn't really provide enough power to make the juice worth the squeeze. He's fine as a lefty bench bat with his bat-to-ball skill, but is still owed nearly $37 million over the next two seasons, which is a bitter pill to swallow for even some well-off franchises. Boston would have to eat a significant portion of the money in order to get any sort of decent return for him, so it's likely they hang on to him at least through 2026, when he's owed only a bit over $18 million.

Tucker opted for a shorter-term commitment with no opt-outs and a higher AAV over the longer-term, lower-AAV contracts that others like the Blue Jays were reportedly offering. The deferred money also will allow them to stay flexible to continue to add talent later in the season. Tucker will earn $40 million over the next three seasons before that figure jumps to $45 million in 2029 and 2030, allowing him to hit free agency again for his age-34 season for perhaps one final big contract.