oston Red Sox fans have hopefully realized by now that the days of only worrying about the New York Yankees in the American League East are long gone. The rise of the Toronto Blue Jays is just one factor that has made this division the most brutal in the AL. Baltimore is due to bounce back from a down year and return to quality form in the next season or two; the Tampa Bay Rays were looking like a serious threat early in the 2025 season before falling off.

There’s not much room for error in the AL East, but the Jays are obviously the most urgent problem, having just come within one win of a world championship and gearing up for more fun in 2026.

Yes, Toronto is looking to right the wrongs of their Game 7 letdown, ante back up in ’26, and go for it all again with most of the same core, plus possibly some blockbuster additions.

The free-agent market’s biggest fish is outfielder Kyle Tucker, and the Blue Jays are reportedly monitoring Tucker’s situation as they look to seize the moment of their championship window and continue to push the “all-in” button. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman was the most recent insider to report a Toronto-Tucker link.

“The Blue Jays are expected to be big players on the markets this offseason,” Heyman wrote. “And that has nothing to do with their heartbreaking World Series. They just want to win. Despite a strong OF group, the Jays are viewed as a possible pursuer of Kyle Tucker.”

“We want to make sure we don’t cut ourselves off,” GM Ross Atkins said, per Heyman. “We’ve had more subtractions in the pitching area. We have to make sure we understand that market, but we’re not going to take ourselves out of any other market, either.”

“They tried for Shohei Ohtani and were willing to do the same $700 million deferred deal he did with the Dodgers,” Heyman continued. “They also were the high bidder for Juan Soto in the first round, offering $600M plus (deferred) before bowing out.”

Is the potential price for Tucker ($400-500 million) a bit bloated? Sure. But when you’re putting all your chips on the table for a title, overspending sort of comes with the territory. The Blue Jays appear to be embracing that philosophy.

Some of Toronto’s players are also doing what they can to lure Tucker. Blue Jays outfielder Myles Straw did some recruiting on Instagram this week.

Tucker to the Blue Jays would be an obviously bad development for the other AL East teams. Toronto’s lineup is already a load to deal with, especially if Bo Bichette re-signs. Adding Tucker to that mix would make life very difficult for opposing pitchers. Bichette, Tucker, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. all within arm’s reach of one another in a lineup? Yikes.

As ridiculous as a Dodgers-Tucker link up would be, that’s a better outcome for a team like the Red Sox than Tucker landing in Toronto.