Arbitration: Tarik Skubal asks for $32 million, Tigers offer $19 million

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Arbitration: Tarik Skubal asks for $32 million, Tigers offer $19 million
Credit: Bless You Boys

Yesterday, you may have seen a number of contract signings.

We're not talking free agents, but players under the control of their team who have enough years of experience to be eligible for arbitration, but not enough for autonomy.

Basically, arbitration-eligible players had to either sign a contract for 2026 by 8pm yesterday, or submit the amount they would request in arbitration . Same thing for teams.

In the end, across the league, 18 players did not come to an agreement with their teams and are therefore lining up for arbitration. For the Blue Jays, Eric Lauer is in that boat: he's asking for $5.75 million and the club is offering $4.4 million.

Note that all clubs with one or more players headed for arbitration can still reach an agreement before their session, which will take place in the coming weeks. It's not too late.

The most talked-about case in MLB is that of Tarik Skubal. In his last year before becoming a free agent, he was unable to agree on the terms of a one-year contract with his team, the Detroit Tigers.

It's hard enough for them to get along in the long term, but not being able to reach an agreement for 2026 doesn't exactly bode well for their long-term relationship.

In fact, the two sides are really bogged down in arbitration, since it's hard to see how they could find common ground. The club is offering $19 million and the player is asking for $32 million.

The $13 million spread is a record in baseball history for an arbitration-eligible player.

What you need to know is that both amounts are significant. Never before has a pitcher made more than $19.75 million in his last year before free agency… and we're talking about David Price in 2015, when he was pitching for the Tigers.

And now, the club is offering Skubal less, a decade later. The two-time Cy Young winner can't be taking it well.

As for the $32 million, it would give Skubal the all-time record for a player one year from free agency. The record belongs to another Scott Boras client, Juan Soto. Two years ago, he received $31 million from the Yankees.

What you need to know is that if this goes before an arbitrator, it'll be black or white: he'll earn either $19 million or $32 million, which would make him the sixth-highest-paid pitcher in MLB in 2026 without having had the privilege of being a free agent.

That would be huge. But if any guy deserves it, it's him.

In actual fact, the amount to be retained is $25.5 million, the middle ground between the two offers. If, at the end of a potential arbitration session, the arbitrator judges that he's worth even a penny less than that, he'll agree with the Tigers and Skubal will earn $19 million.

But if the arbitrator judges the pitcher to be worth more than $25.5 million, the Tigers will be forced to pay $32 million to the world's best pitcher.

This will be a fascinating case to follow. And of necessity, it's likely to insult the two-time Cy Young winner, who's already struggling to get anywhere near what he wants in long-term negotiations.

Clearly, his future lies elsewhere.

PMLB
  • Here are the other players who could go before a referee.

  • The Blue Jays had four players in that position. And besides Eric Lauer, everyone (Daulton Varsho, Ernie Clement, and Tyler Heineman) signed a one-year contract.

This content was created with the help of AI.

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