The Los Angeles Dodgers were already facing criticism that their offseason strategies were doing significant damage to Major League Baseball as a whole and their latest move isn’t going to quiet those claims.
After earning two World Series championships in a row following consecutive offseasons of record spending for veteran talent, the Dodgers added Kyle Tucker to the roster in a clear sign that the critics don’t bother them.
“Two months after winning a second consecutive World Series championship, the Dodgers have fired another destructively defiant shot across the bow of a battered baseball landscape, shredding losers and infuriating fans and raising an historically holy amount of hell,” Bill Plaschke wrote for the Los Angeles Times. “Meet Kyle Tucker, the hottest free agent on the market, a right fielder who slugs the snot out of the ball and who is now a $60-million-a-year Dodger.”
San Francisco Giants’ Manager Tony Vitello Responds To Los Angeles Dodgers Adding Kyle Tucker
After the Dodgers added Tucker and All-Star closer Edwin Diaz to the roster, the team seems to have no weak points as it looks to capture a third straight title. And it might be more than a little depressing for fans of competing teams to consider that the road to a championship will go through the juggernaut in Los Angeles again next season.
Even for the players and coaches who will be matching up with the Dodgers, it’s clear that Tucker makes them much better.
“The Tucker (addition) adds to their lineup,” San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello said, per Justice Delos Santos of The Press Democrat. “By nature, you don’t really have to follow the offseason closely to know that their organization — and a couple others — are going to spend a lot of money.”
San Francisco Giants’ Tony Vitello On ‘Dollars,’ ‘Talent’ Of Los Angeles Dodgers’ Roster
But Vitello, who can expect to battle with the Dodgers in some high-stakes National League West division matchups in his first year managing the Giants, is more focused on his own roster than on any blockbuster moves by the Dodgers.
He offered a five-word response on his mindset after the Dodgers’ latest star acquisition by underscoring that his focus is on his own team: “I’m wearing orange and black,” Vitello said, per Santos.
“I’m looking at some guys that I’m excited to work with that are wearing orange and black,” Vitello added, according to Santos. “You could argue dollars and cents, talent and things like that, but I think there’s a fresh air with some of the changes that we need to capitalize on.”
In Vitello’s debut MLB season, he will manage star players like Logan Webb, Jung Hoo Lee, Willy Adames, Rafael Devers and Matt Chapman. The team hasn’t made a significant improvement this winter on the same level as the Dodgers’ move for Tucker, but that doesn’t seem to bother their rival’s new skipper.
