Surprising Team Enters The Kyle Tucker Sweepstakes: Insider

The Kyle Tucker Sweepstakes will soon kick into high gear, with a lot of the betting money so far on the Toronto Blue Jays being the favorite to land the superstar outfielder and top free agent this offseason.

But there's a surprise entrant to the Tucker Derby, from within the Blue Jays' division (and no, we're not talking about the New York Yankees, though they could very well be involved as well). According to insider Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic, the normally tight-fisted Baltimore Orioles could actually take a run at Tucker.

With a projected $400 million contract in demand by the Tucker camp, it sounds crazy for a team that rarely hands out big-time money on the open market. But Rosenthal explains that it's not out of the question.

"This is a huge offseason for (Orioles GM) Mike Elias," said Rosenthal on the Foul Territory podcast. "You have a team that should be better."

He goes on to explain that despite their stunning trade for Taylor Ward earlier this week, they are not set in the outfield yet, as he wrote in The Athletic.

They still could upgrade in center over Colton Cowser and Leody Taveras. And though Ward will play left, with Tyler O’Neill and Dylan Beavers potentially alternating in right, club officials are not ruling out a pursuit of right fielder Kyle Tucker.

But after trading Grayson Rodriguez, isn't pitching the Orioles' No. 1 priority? Rosenthal has an answer for that as well:

"If the Orioles landed Tucker, they possibly could package Cowser or Beavers with prospects to satisfy some of their pitching needs. Or, they could pursue other avenues. Their thinking would be: Make Tucker the anchor of a still-mostly youthful lineup, then figure out the rest."

Tucker batted .266 with an .841 OPS for the Chicago Cubs this season, with a big 143 OPS+.