The Chicago Cubs are going into the 2025 season with some high expectations to end their prolonged playoff drought.
The team made a series of offseason moves that seemed focused on a return to contention, including the additions of closer Ryan Pressly and veteran infielder Justin Turner. But the biggest change for the team this winter was a blockbuster trade for three-time All-Star slugger Kyle Tucker.
Tucker has instantly become the face of the franchise for 2025 but, after earning $16.5 million in his final season of arbitration eligibility, he could become a free agent at the end of the year. The Cubs dealt away a hefty package of controllable players in Isaac Paredes, Hayden Wasneski and Cam Smith to acquire Tucker from the Astros, so just one season at Wrigley Field might be a disappointment.
If the Cubs want to keep their 28-year-old superstar for the long term, they’ll have to extend him. And, according to a new projection from The Athletic’s Tim Britton, that won’t be cheap.
“Tucker should be able to secure a deal through at least his age-36 season, and it’s not hard for him to argue he should go longer than either (Mark) Teixeira or (Prince) Fielder,” Britton wrote. “Let’s go with 10 years at about $35 million each before adding in this season’s salary… 2025 extension projection: 11 years, $366 million.”
That total sum would grant Tucker the third-largest contract total in all of Major League Baseball, behind only Juan Soto and Shohei Ohtani. In a sign of just how large baseball contracts are becoming, Tucker’s projected deal would exceed the dollar total of the nine-year, $360 million deal that Aaron Judge signed with the New York Yankees in 2023, though Judge would be making more in average annual value.
For comparison’s sake, Judge had been a four-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger Award winner and a Most Valuable Player Award winner up to that point. Bregman has not produced at the same rate, but with Ohtani and Soto landing contracts in the $700 million range, it looks like the Cubs will have to pay up if they want to keep Tucker around beyond the 2025 season.
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