When news broke on Wednesday evening that one of the biggest free agents on the market was visiting the Toronto Blue Jays in Florida, Toronto fans must have felt an uneasy sense of déjà vu. Sure, it’s great when someone like Kyle Tucker is in person at the Blue Jays Spring Training complex in Dunedin. But on the other, he isn’t the first big name free agent to pay them a visit, only to spurn them for another team later on

In fact, one of the biggest heartbreaks in recent Toronto memory happened in almost the exact same fashion. Ahead of the 2024 season, two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani was also spotted in Dunedin and all reports indicated that the Blue Jays were very much alive in the Shohei sweepstakes. But we all know how that turned out.

Blue Jays fans better hope Kyle Tucker isn’t following Shohei Ohtani’s path

For those that don’t, Ohtani ended up with this little known team called the LA Dodgers, while the Blue Jays had to settle for being the “team that almost got him.” Since signing with LA, Ohtani has led the Dodgers to back-to-back World Series championships, while the Blue Jays went from being the team that almost got Ohtani to the team that was two outs away from beating Ohtani and the Dodgers in the World Series.

So if Blue Jays fans seem a little unphased about the Tucker news, it’s not hard to see why. Toronto is always “in the mix” and there are many reports that they are “interested in” every single big name free agent that hits the market. Until recently with the Dylan Cease signing, they’ve rarely been able to reel in those big fish, and Tucker has to be considered a big fish.

The 28-year-old Tucker has a slash line of .274/.353/.516 with 125 home runs and 417 RBIs since debuting with the Houston Astros in 2019. He’s coming off another productive year, despite dealing with an injury that may have brought down some of his overall numbers. He suffered a small fracture in his hand on June 1 when he jammed his right hand into second base while attempting to steal. But he sill managed to hit .266/.377/.463 with 22 home runs and 25 steals.

The left handed hitting Tucker would give the Blue Jays an immediate boost in their lineup. While Toronto was one of the best offensive teams last year in terms of contact rate, putting the ball in play and drawing walks, Tucker would also help provide some pop in addition to fitting into the Blue Jays style of play. Not to mention the Blue Jays could be without one of their catalysts in shortstop Bo Bichette.

Bichette is currently a free agent himself and, like Tucker, is expected to command a fairly large salary after hitting .311/.357/.483 with 18 home runs last season. Many believe that the Blue Jays might be in a situation where they can only get one of these players, while also trying to fill in other gaps, such as a finding a proven back-end of the bullpen guy.

But Toronto have been a surprisingly aggressive team already this offseason, so maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise if they end up taking a few more swings before the season begins.

However, after being spurned by Ohtani just a few off-season’s ago, it’s also not a surprise if Blue Jays fans aren’t holding their breaths with this news.