Yankees alarm bells should be going off as Kyle Tucker-Blue Jays rumors intensify

Aaron Boone made sure to remind all of us during Winter Meetings that his New York Yankees team and the Toronto Blue Jays had identical records during the 2025 regular season. Right, because this is what matters when comparing the two AL East powers, not the fact that Toronto thumped the Yanks in the ALDS.

Boone's attempt at a point was that the "gap" between the two teams isn't as wide as people think (or as wide as the postseason illustrated). The very idea of a Yankees manager bringing up regular season performance as an important metric says a lot about how far the franchise has fallen from its glorious throne of decades past, but that's another conversation.

Even if we give Boone the benefit of the doubt here and assume that he's right, the thin gap between the Yankees and Blue Jays has undeniably grown wider this offseason, due to Toronto's front office pushing all its chips to the center of the table while Brian Cashman continues to be Brian Cashman — a good, but not great title-team builder. Assertive, but not bold enough. Experienced, but not aggressive enough.

Six weeks into the offseason, Cashman hasn't made any big splashes (with all due respect to Amed Rosario, a prudent signing), while the Blue Jays have thrown any and all caution to the wind by dropping $210 million on Dylan Cease and bolstering their staff further with Cody Ponce and Tyler Rogers additions. All of this, and yet Toronto's most expensive chess move probably hasn't happened yet.

Blue Jays continue to look like Kyle Tucker's destiny, which is bad news for the Yankees

Many pundits feel that the Blue Jays are going to cap off their brilliant offseason by bringing aboard the biggest fish in free agency, four-time All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker. While plenty of teams have been interested in Tucker since the start of the offseason, it's felt more and more apparent as the weeks have gone on that Toronto might be the only team enthused about paying Tucker the $400 million-ish megadeal that he's seeking.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been linked to Tucker all this time, but it's widely believed that they'd prefer to sign Tucker to a short-term, high AAV deal (while they ostensibly gear up for a $450 million offer to Tarik Skubal a year from now, among other lavish expenses).

The Yankees have been linked to Tucker, too, but as a backup plan to their ongoing pursuit of a Cody Bellinger reunion. Belli figures to be cheaper than Tucker and is already proven in the Bronx. The ideal outcome for the Yankees would be to re-sign Bellinger and see Tucker land anywhere but Toronto. However, many signs are unfortunately pointing to a Toronto-Tucker marriage, with a recent Instagram hint from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stoking the speculative fires.

Tucker landing with the Blue Jays wouldn't be an instance of Toronto stealing away a target from the Yankees. This isn't about one player, but rather a deeper, more harmful truth: the Jays are now spending like the Yankees used to. They're taking on a championship mentality when they whip out their checkbook, thereby widening the talent gap in the division that Boone so confidently asserted was but pencil-thin.