It’s January, and the best all-around player on the free-agent market – Kyle Tucker – is still seeking his next team.
That he’ll get a nice long contract isn’t in dispute, nor is the fact that he’ll help whichever team he ends up joining. (He’s never played on a team that didn’t end up making the playoffs, for one thing.) If not quite in the recent Ohtani / Judge / Soto stratosphere of “best free agent available,” he’s still a reliable 4- to 5-WAR player every single year. Don’t skip past that part; over the last five seasons, only nine position players have been more valuable. By at least one projection system, he’s expected to be a top-20 player yet again in 2026, with a tidy 4.5 WAR to go along with it.
So yes, he’d help anyone. But who really needs him the most?
Thirty teams. One best fit.
In finding that fit, we have to try to keep it realistic, even though you could probably talk yourself into all 30 teams being interested. To start with, there’s a handful of situations that just don’t seem right, simply because he’s not likely to choose a team that’s in the midst of rebuilding. (Like we said: he’s never missed the playoffs.) For others, either in contention or close to it, the baseball fit would make a ton of sense – imagine what a Cleveland or Miami lineup would look like with this kind of bat – but there’s little recent history of playing in the contract waters that Tucker is likely to achieve.
Similarly, a return to Chicago doesn’t seem to be in the cards, because for as good a season as he had as a Cub, Tucker really didn’t seem to enjoy hitting in Wrigley Field, where his slugging percentage was 129 points lower than it was on the road. Throw in a few contenders with relatively strong outfields who are more likely to devote resources to pitching, infielders, or both – think Boston, Texas, San Diego, Atlanta or Seattle. (Baltimore is now in that group, too, after adding Taylor Ward and Pete Alonso.) So that leaves us with a tidy list of eight realistic destinations.
We'll then use FanGraphs’ 2026 team projections, take their outfields only, and rank them from strongest to neediest to get a list of clubs that need Tucker the most – and might actually land him. Let's break them down, starting at the bottom.
8. Yankees (Projected outfield rank: No. 1)
Don’t worry, Yankees fans. Eighth on this list is still higher than 22 other teams. If this is a disappointingly low rank in the midst of what’s been a disappointingly quiet winter, we get it, and being eighth here is not the same thing as “it shouldn’t be them.” They’re the Yankees. Of course it should be them. (Assuming he’s interested in playing in New York, which not everyone always is.)
While it’s fair to argue that the lofty “No. 1 overall outfield” is inflated simply by having Aaron Judge in right, that also undersells a bit how valuable Trent Grisham was in 2025 (34 homers, 3.2 WAR), plus there’s continued interest in seeing what they have in Jasson Domínguez and Spencer Jones. Mostly, though, it’s this: In addition to prioritizing the starting pitcher they clearly still require, the Yankees have reportedly made multiple attempts to bring back fellow lefty-hitting outfielder Cody Bellinger, who had a successful pinstriped debut in 2025. If they’re prioritizing Bellinger, they surely won’t end up with Tucker as well.
7. D-backs (Projected outfield rank: No. 8)
No, this probably isn’t likely, but hear us out on this one. To start, Arizona has one superstar outfielder (Corbin Carroll) and a lot of questions everywhere else on the grass, with Alek Thomas now having shown in parts of four seasons that he’s a below-average hitter, Jake McCarthy coming off the worst season of his career, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. likely to miss much of 2026 after a September knee injury. By adding Merrill Kelly and Michael Soroka, they’ve added needed depth to their rotation, allowing them to focus on the bullpen and the lineup.
You might argue that corner infield is the biggest place to improve, and you might not be wrong – it’s why all those rumors about their interest in Alex Bregman arrived in December. But those rumors are a part of why this might work, too. No, Bregman wouldn't command a deal as large as Tucker would, yet it also shows that the D-backs are willing to be creative to make big deals happen, as we saw just last year with Corbin Burnes. Tucker and Arizona have been linked by MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. It’s not likely. It’s not zero, either.
6. Mets (Projected outfield rank: No. 9)
Don’t worry, Mets fans. Sixth on this list is still … well, you get the idea. While it's hard to say the Mets' offseason has been quiet, some may still find it disappointing. Like the Yankees, their solid outfield projection rests mostly on a single megastar right fielder, with Juan Soto’s 6.0 WAR projection accounting for nearly 70% of the entire Mets outfield value. While rookie outfielder Carson Benge is indeed well regarded, he’s also listed as the starter on the depth chart at left field and center right now. We’ll safely assume that he won’t actually be asked to cover two spots by himself and that they will in fact bring in an outfielder.
If it’s free agency, that’s pretty much going to have to be Tucker or Bellinger, because there simply isn’t another starting-quality free agent outfielder available, unless you think they’re going to try Harrison Bader again. Trades are a possibility, too, of course.
5. Tigers (Projected outfield rank: No. 14)
Understandably, the biggest question of the Detroit winter has been the will-they-or-won’t-they about trading Tarik Skubal, which presently has led to absolutely nothing at all. That makes the downside here obvious: No one thinks they’d sign a major contract right now and also extend Skubal, so to sign Tucker today would send a signal about their ace that might make things … let’s say, “tricky.”
On the other hand, there’s considerable pressure to make a push to win while Skubal is there, and a big part of that has to come via an improved lineup, since the second-half Tigers were a bottom-10 unit last season. While Riley Greene is entrenched in left, and they hope Parker Meadows can improve in center until top prospect Max Clark is ready, right field is projected to be a bottom-10 group in 2026. The obvious Houston connection between Tucker and Tigers manager AJ Hinch is one thing; adding a star bat for the best possible push with Skubal leading the rotation is another.
4. Blue Jays (Projected outfield rank: No. 16)
It’s wild to think about, given that the Blue Jays have been the busiest and most active team of the winter, but there’s still a way for this to fit despite the recent signing of Kazuma Okamoto, in part because of all the flexibility and moving parts here. Consider center fielder Daulton Varsho the only obvious everyday guy, and realize what the corners look like. There are veterans who should spend much of their time covering DH, in George Springer and Anthony Santander. There are outfielders who can play the infield (Addison Barger, Davis Schneider), and useful pieces who shouldn’t stand in the way of improvement (Nathan Lukes, Myles Straw), and that’s how you end up with an outfield that’s rated as fine, not great.
But most important is this: All indications are that the Blue Jays aren’t done, whether that’s retaining Bo Bichette or bringing in Tucker. It was well reported that Tucker visited the team’s complex in Dunedin, Fla., in early December; it’s well reported that all their winter work hasn’t removed them from the sweepstakes, especially given how much money comes off the books after 2026.
3. Dodgers (Projected outfield rank: No. 18)
The team that has everything … doesn’t, actually. The outfield wasn’t a strength in 2025, rating just 18th overall, which is exactly where they’re projected in 2026. Even Andy Pages, who hit 27 homers and posted 4.1 WAR, is a question, given that he fell off considerably in the second half and then spent the month of October hitting so poorly that he was benched in the World Series. (He later made a somewhat important catch you may remember for the rest of time, of course.)
For all of the obvious financial might here, the only thing Los Angeles has done so far is to sign Edwin Díaz. The need for an outfielder is clear, particularly if they do find a way to trade Teoscar Hernández, who had a generally disappointing year. Given that they’re the Dodgers, you probably wouldn’t want to count them out until Tucker is seen wearing another team’s uniform.
2. Giants (Projected outfield rank: No. 20)
The baseball fit here is so, so good. It’s just this side of perfect. Last year’s San Francisco outfield was similar to that of the Dodgers, and projects again as a below-average unit. While second base is a huge need as well – and wouldn’t Bichette look great there? – you look at the outfield, and it’s not clear there’s even one above-average player there. That’s not to say that Jung-Hoo Lee couldn’t take another step forward; it’s that he’s been just OK so far. Either way, it’s a lineup that’s clearly lacking a bat.
One argument might be that they got a head start on this winter’s big-ticket signing when they made the shocking trade for Rafael Devers last summer. But, also, it’s still not a good enough offense, even with Devers, Matt Chapman and Willy Adames. Tucker would solve so many problems here.
1. Phillies (Projected outfield rank: No. 27)
… but not as much as he would in Philadelphia. The Phillies' outfield has been an issue for a while now, especially with Bryce Harper now a first baseman. It’s largely been with the exact same core of Brandon Marsh, Johan Rojas and Nick Castellanos, supplemented at times by veterans like Harrison Bader or Max Kepler or role pieces like Otto Kemp or Weston Wilson. It didn’t really work -- this was the No. 21 outfield -- and even that was mostly because of how well Bader played after coming over at the Trade Deadline. It’s now looking to be a bottom-five unit, and absolutely everyone expects that one way or another, Castellanos has played his final game for the Phillies. (Marsh, to his credit, was actually quite good last year after a miserable April.)
Yes, we get it: They’d like to give prospect Justin Crawford a shot in center, and they took a rebound bet on a one-year deal for Adolis García, who hasn’t been productive since 2023. We also heard Dave Dombrowski say the outfield is “pretty well set” after signing García. That doesn’t mean things can’t change, though. For all the talk of shaking things up in Philadelphia, all that’s really happened is adding García and bringing back Kyle Schwarber (understandably, obviously). They still need to sort out catcher, whether that’s returning J.T. Realmuto or looking elsewhere. There’s just no way for them to improve things quite as much as they could by adding Tucker – as unlikely as it may seem.