The Detroit Tigers have a massive decision ahead of them this offseason and into next year. With Tarik Skubal set to be a free agent after the 2026 MLB season, the time to sign him to an extension is running out.
A report from Jon Heyman of The New York Post came out on Thursday that Skubal and the Tigers are $250 million apart in contract talks. That's a massive chasm that Detroit would need to cross, and it seems unlikely the longer it drags on.
Adding to the uncertainty surrounding an extension was a further report from Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press that highlighted an insulting contract offer from the Tigers in 2024 made to Skubal.
The Tigers made an insulting contract offer to Tarik Skubal after his 2024 Cy Young season
"Remember the non-competitive offer to Tarik Skubal?" Petzold writes. "Four years. Less than $100 million. One year ago, that's what the Detroit Tigers offered Skubal after the 2024 season in hopes of signing him to a contract extension, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation granted anonymity because the offer is not public."
That four-year deal would've covered Skubal's 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028 seasons. Instead of hitting free agency after 2026, he would be a free agent after 2028. For the soon-to-be 29-year-old, those two years of waiting for free agency are huge.
Skubal will be a free agent at 30 years old, but if he signed that offer, he'd be a free agent at 32 years old and would've missed a window to cash in.
What makes that offer from the Tigers so insulting is that Skubal was coming off an incredibly dominant 2024 season. He was the unanimous Cy Young in the American League, as he led MLB in wins with 18 and bWAR with 6.4.
Across 31 starts and 192 innings pitched, Skubal had a 2.39 ERA, which led the AL. He also led MLB in strikeouts with 228, and had the best ERA+ (174) and FIP (2.49) in the AL.
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After such a dominant season, to make him an offer that wasn't as much as veterans like Yu Darvish and Robbie Ray, or even closer Edwin Diaz, was a very lowballed offer.
Skubal is now eyeing a contract north of $400 million, and the less-than-$100-million offer across four years the Tigers made after the 2024 season is not only insulting to Skubal but a bad sign that the Tigers can extend him beyond the 2026 season.
He made $10.5 million in arbitration with the Tigers in 2025, and Skubal isn't going to skimp out on his upcoming free agent deal. The Tigers will either have to pay up, going well beyond their normal payroll, or let Skubal leave by way of a trade or a free agency departure.
There's no more interesting contract negotiation than the one between Skubal and the Tigers, and with the lefty poised to win his second consecutive Cy Young Award in 2025, his demands are only going to increase.
Skubal and Detroit are hundreds of millions of dollars apart in contract negotiations. While the Tigers would like to keep the lefty, their offer from 2024 doesn't bode well for the Tigers' chances to extend Skubal.
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