Baseball is melting down because of Kyle Tucker. It doesn't have to be like this

Baseball and its fans melted down on Thursday night because of a free agency signing. A pretty big one at that. Kyle Tucker is heading to the Los Angeles Dodgers for the jaw-dropping fee of $240 million over four years. He adds to what is already a loaded roster, from top to bottom. Little to no flaws remain for Andrew Friedman’s club. There probably won’t be a single serious person out there who picks someone other than the Dodgers to win a third consecutive World Series.

Nobody really cares about the micro aspects of this deal. Tucker fixes one of the few issues in Los Angeles last season -- outfield play. His consistent bat, solid defense, and quality base running will more than help the Dodgers. Who doesn’t want a guy fresh off an OPS+ season of 143? He upgrades right field in a major way.

But this is about the bigger picture in baseball. The Dodgers are once again running rampant, signing the biggest free agents, and to some people, ruining baseball. Cries for a salary cap from fans are getting louder and louder. They say the middle to small market teams do not even have a chance to compete anymore.

It doesn’t have to be like this.

Yes, the easy argument to all of this is, “Other owners should just open their checkbooks.” For some reason, that sentiment is no longer sticking with people. In reality, nobody is asking for another team, let alone a small-market one, to go on the same spree we are seeing in Los Angeles. Why not try to flatten out some of the talent, though?

The Dodgers have a stacked roster, full of All-Star caliber players. Multiple are going to wind up in Cooperstown for their efforts. But most of them landed in Los Angeles because other teams, some of which should be considered giants, were unwilling to commit to those contracts.

Freddie Freeman won the Atlanta Braves a World Series title, only to leave shortly after. Atlanta could not agree to terms on his new deal, instead trading for Matt Olson to man first base moving forward. Nobody is saying it’s a bad move because Olson is a good player. The Braves just could have prevented him from ending up in LA by paying a homegrown talent beloved by the entire fanbase.

Mookie Betts also helped the Boston Red Sox win a championship. Ownership also did not want to give him a large contract. They willingly sent him to the Dodgers for guys who never came close to matching Betts and his ability combined. Why are the Boston Red Sox not signing their homegrown superstars?

Tucker and Edwin Diaz are just the latest examples. Early reports on Diaz suggest the Mets regretted letting him leave the franchise. The Dodgers offered slightly more, probably what Steve Cohen makes when brushing his teeth every morning. David Stearns decided against going the extra mile to sign his elite closer. Now, Diaz joins an already loaded Dodgers bullpen.

The Houston Astros chose to trade Tucker because of his impending free agency. It’s something the organization has done for a lot of players through this golden era. Tucker landed with the Chicago Cubs, who also bowed out of the bidding war for Tucker while he was still a member of the team. Yes, the Chicago Cubs, a top-three to five team in revenue, who had about a year’s head start on everyone.

And of course, there is more to each scenario than what was simply laid out here. I could continue to list examples. Even Shohei Ohtani, who left the Angels because of their inability to win. However, six paragraphs with four scenarios are probably enough. Hopefully, you get the point. 

Not being able to change the past, what’s the apparent solution for the future? For everyone, the answer is the salary cap. “We don’t have a chance to win a championship without a salary cap,” 29 fan bases are seemingly saying right now. Well, in reality, 25 years' worth of data says the complete opposite. The Dodgers are the first team to win back-to-back titles since a New York Yankees three-peat in 1998-2000. New York also played in the 2001 World Series, losing in seven games. Since then, nothing but parity across the board with 16 different champions.

Then look at a salary cap league like the NFL. Next Sunday will be the first AFC Championship without Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes since 2010. Count Brady’s time in Tampa Bay and the two have a combined 10 Super Bowls since the turn of the century. Two quarterbacks have dominated the sport.

Basketball has produced multiple dynasties. The Los Angeles Lakers three-peated and later won three more titles. Both the San Antonio Spurs and the Golden State Warriors went on magical runs due to special talent and coaching. LeBron James falls into Brady/Mahomes status by dominating the sport. At one point, we got four straight years of James (Cleveland Cavaliers) vs. Golden State.

The NHL provides a little more mixture when looking at Stanley Cup winners, although the same teams have found a way to pop up at times. But at least two of the other four major American sports have a salary cap and somehow are not balanced across the board. It’s far from a guarantee.

Unfortunately, here is the main issue with the salary cap idea -- getting it implemented. It’s not going to work. It never has in baseball, it never will. Wanting to find “parity” and “competitive balance” has nothing to do with it, either. Merely suggesting putting one in the next CBA is why the 2027 season is likely not going to happen. Players, historically, do not budge on this idea. Guys like Bryce Harper and other leaders do not appear set to be the group to ruin everything for generations to come. Players want to continue to get paid large contracts. Owners are tired of handing those out.

And fans should blame nobody but those owners. If you want to be mad at the Dodgers, okay, that’s fine. There are still a handful not doing a good enough job trying to build winning baseball teams. Some of them make plenty of revenue, opting to be comparatively cheap on the payroll instead. Others feel like not enough money is coming in to justify shelling out deals to players.

Nobody is asking for 30 (eventually 32, by the way. Which will only add millions, if not billions, more dollars into the pocket of owners) teams to spend like money is no object. That’s not a reality. Even so, instead of watching the Dodgers sign seemingly every top free agent and eventually watch baseball go into a sport-changing lockout, you could just try to spread the talent out a little bit more amongst yourselves. Nobody is better equipped to do so.

Again, it doesn’t have to be like this.