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Report: Tarik Skubal and Tigers Laughably Far Apart in Contract Negotiations
Tarik Skubal won the American League Cy Young award in 2024 by winning the pitching Triple Crown and leading the AL in wins, strikeouts and ERA. In 2025 he proceeded to have an even better statistical season, lowering his ERA and WHIP and striking out even more batters than he did during his Cy Young season.
About to enter his age 29 season, Skubal has one more campaign under Detroit's control before he becomes a free agent. As of right now, he's due to make $22.5 million next season, which is about half what Max Scherzer got annually from the Mets when they signed him to a three-year deal back in 2022.
The Tigers made Skubal an offer last offseason that was deemed "non-competitive" and it seems that another incredible season on the mound did not convince them to make whatever he considers a competitive offer.
According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the two sides are about a quarter of a billion dollars apart. No, seriously. In the words of Heyman, "Yep, that’s not a misprint. It’s close to $250 million."
While the total money or number of years is not clear, Heyman says that the "baseline for Skubal is seen as $400M." So the Tigers could be doing anything from making an insultingly low offer to being right there on the average salary, but far apart on the length of the contract.
Either way, they're going to have to pay Skubal to keep him.
Who is the highest paid pitcher in MLB?
For Skubal to crack the top five highest-paid pitchers, he'd need more than $35 million a year, which is exactly what Corbin Burnes is getting from the Diamondbacks. Shohei Ohtani has an average salary of $70 million, but unless Skubal can hit 50-plus home runs a season as a designated hitter, he should probably focus on what these guys are making.
Here are the five pitchers with contracts worth an average annual value of over $30 million, when they signed those deals and how long they are.
Pitcher | Average Annual Value | Signed | Contract Length |
|---|---|---|---|
Zack Wheeler | $42,000,000 | 2025 | 3 years |
Jacob deGrom | $37,000,000 | 2023 | 5 years |
Blake Snell | $36,400,000 | 2025 | 5 years + club option |
Gerrit Cole | $36,000,000 | 2019 | 9 years |
Corbin Burnes | $35,000,000 | 2024 | 6 years |
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Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.