The Detroit Tigers are in the middle of an awkward standoff with Tarik Skubal. He's under club control through 2026, and the team is always entertaining trade offers for the ace.
The two-time Cy Young still needs to have his arbitration hearing amid the $13 million gap between the Tigers and Skubal. He filed at $32 million, while the Tigers filed at $19.8 million.
With the looming arbitration hearing, Skubal's agent, Scott Boras, called out the Tigers front office for their philosophy with contract talks in a piece from Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press. Boras is not a fan of how the Tigers are treating these talks.
Scott Boras is not a fan of how Tigers are managing Tarik Skubal's contract talks
"There's no baseball rule that says you can't negotiate," Boras said. "It's the Tigers' philosophy where they stop negotiations, but that's their choice, not ours. We're continuing to negotiate, and we'll always do so in good faith - up until the hearing when arbitrators decide."
Boras is stating it plainly that he wants to continue negotiating with the Tigers to get a Skubal contract done before arbitration.
Instead, based on Boras' comments, the Tigers seem willing to let this go to an arbitration hearing, where they will hope the panel sides with them and their $19.8 million offer.
This negotiation divide comes amid the Tigers using David Price's $19 million figure from 2015 as their negotiation benchmark, instead of more modern examples of contracts for pitchers as good as Skubal.
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Skubal is a two-time Cy Young, and will not be cheap, no matter whether it's this final year of arbitration, or next year when he's a free agent.
Boras is calling out the Tigers front office for not being willing to negotiate with Skubal's agent to work out a deal ahead of arbitration. "We are open to negotiate," Boras said. "There are no deadlines from Tarik Skubal's camp."
This situation is not one Boras is a fan of, as he's calling out the Tigers by pointing out that the lack of a negotiation ahead of arbitration is the Tigers' decision, not Boras and Skubal's.
Either in late January or early February, the arbitration hearing will take place, and decide Skubals contract figure for the 2026 season. Boras wants to negotiate, but the Tigers have no intentions of doing so.
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