Kyle Tucker’s off-season begins now, but how many teams will be in position to sign him?

“Best of luck.”

Those were the last words from Kyle Tucker, taken only slightly out of context.

All season long, Tucker answered questions about his future as noncommittally as possible. Generally considered to be one of the better all-around hitters in the game, and one of the blandest quotes, Tucker was forced by circumstance to talk about himself.

The Cubs traded for him last December as he was entering his last season before free agency, so it set up this season-long storyline. Tucker was predicted to command a long-term deal worth upward of $300 million and maybe, if the wind blew his way, closer to a half-billion.

Despite dominating while playing in the third-biggest market in baseball, not to mention having an absolute cash register of a ballpark, the Cubs haven’t signed a free agent to a $200 million deal.

The convergence of the thriftiest rich franchise in baseball and the $400 million rental was an angle ready-made for the current state of baseball, where superstars are getting contracts that rivaled the value of entire teams 15 years ago, and only a handful of teams are anteing up to pay them.

Tucker then had an MVP-caliber first half — which created a groundswell of “Sign Tucker” content — but was only middling from July through October. By the time the playoffs rolled around, he was basically a singles hitter.

And so at his locker in Milwaukee after the Cubs’ season ended in the NL Division Series, Tucker was asked those familiar questions — “Do you want to stay in Chicago? Do you think you’ll sign a deal here?” — one final time, even if our interest in his answers had waned considerably.

“We’ll see what happens, but I don’t know what the future’s gonna hold,” he said as he stared straight ahead. “If not, it’s been an honor playing with all these guys and, you know, wish everyone the best of luck, whether it’s playing next year or not for them, and it’s been a really fun group to be a part of.”

Best of luck.

I was laughing at those words in the press box that night, and I’m thinking of them again as we start baseball’s hot-stove season.

With a 2026 lockout looming, tight-fisted owners complaining about their own bad local television deals and the Dodgers’ profligate spending, best of luck to all the free agents out there and best of luck to the teams who won’t be bidding on them.

How many clubs will push their chips in the middle in the next two months, whether it’s for Tucker or any of the big-name players on the market? How many fan bases will go into the season with legitimate hopes of dethroning the Dodgers, who could very well sign a player like Tucker and reload to challenge the 1998-2000 Yankees’ three-peat?

Expect the rich to get richer, the poor to cry poorer, and teams like the Cubs, a big-market organization with mid-market owners, to straddle the line, infuriating fans who pay top dollar for tickets and yearn to see their team invest in a top-of-the-line hitter or pitcher. Or even both.

In The Athletic’s top 50 free-agent ranking, Tim Britton ranked Tucker as the top available player and predicted a whopping 12-year, $460 million deal that would be the third largest of all time, trailing only Juan Soto (15 years, $765 million with the Mets), Shohei Ohtani (10 years, about $700 million with the Dodgers) and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (14 years, $500 million to re-sign with the Blue Jays). Though I think that number is a bit too high for Tucker, a five-tool player without one elite tool, he’ll be in demand. Or he should be.

Six of the teams with top-10 payrolls made the playoffs, with two of the top five battling it out in the World Series. The Dodgers had Ohtani and the Blue Jays had Guerrero Jr. Could Tucker be that guy for another team?

You never know how it’ll work out, but what I do know is the Cubs aren’t paying $460 million for him. While they like what they got out of Tucker this season, they didn’t like it that much. I’m guessing Cubs president Jed Hoyer won’t bang his fist on the table for a guy who barely out-homered catcher Carson Kelly. Not that owner Tom Ricketts would pay that kind of salary anyway.

Britton listed three teams as “best bets” for the outfielder and, shocker, they are three of the four teams with the highest total payrolls: the Dodgers, Yankees and Phillies.

That the Dodgers, who will have spent more than $500 million in payroll and luxury tax, are considered a favorite for Tucker speaks to their utter domination of the free-agent market and how they can afford to take big swings, even if they don’t work out. As their path to the World Series title proved, spending the most doesn’t guarantee anything, but it makes it a heck of a lot easier to withstand the injuries and inconsistencies that come with playing a 162-game season, followed by a grueling month of playoff baseball.

In the AL Championship Series, the Blue Jays (fifth-highest payroll) beat the Mariners, which weren’t far from the top 10, while in the NLCS, the Dodgers breezed by the Brewers, the latest small-market darling. There will always be a creative franchise that makes the playoffs every year with a flourishing farm system, but when it comes to the end of October, those teams run out of gas and arms and it’s almost always the team with a wealth of resources that organizes a parade.

The Dodgers needed every player on their loaded roster to make it happen, but they got that parade. And they’ll be loaded again in 2026, the benefit of a local TV rights deal that will never be seen again.

Win-now, spend-now owners, such as the Guggenheim Partners (Dodgers), John Middleton (Phillies) and Steve Cohen (Mets) are rare.

“They make all the decisions,” Guggenheim CEO Mark Walter said of his front office after their World Series victory. “I just tell them yes.”

Ricketts is more the norm. He wants to win, and he’ll spend enough to be respectable, but he doesn’t give blank checks. He runs the team like a family business, not a hobby. It’s why like-minded owners will be angling for a real salary cap after the 2026 season.

The Cubs shouldn’t sign Tucker — though if he can’t get the years he wants, expect them to make a pitch on a shorter deal — but they should be spending this off-season to make a run at the pennant. They should be making competitive offers on difference-makers such as Alex Bregman and Kyle Schwarber, along with signing a handful of pitchers. The Cubs were desperately short on pitching in the playoffs, and that weakness needs to be addressed. Depth costs money or prospects, and a team like the Cubs should be willing to part with the former first.

At his end-of-season address, I asked Hoyer if he’d have the budget to compete in 2026. It’s the only question that matters.

“I’m confident that we’re going to have enough money to field a good team,” Hoyer said. “That’s the simplest thing I’ll say, but as far as details, I don’t know yet.”

Notice he didn’t say a “great” team. Hoyer couldn’t promise the Cubs, a good team that made the playoffs in 2025, would be in a position to spend enough now to maybe challenge the Dodgers next October. He said he’d know more by the GM meetings, which began in Las Vegas this week.

And so, I’ll say to Hoyer and any of his peers what I offer to anyone heading to Las Vegas with a tight budget and dreams of glory.

Best of luck.

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