Tigers Face Huge Upcoming Salary Arbitration Deadline with Tarik Skubal

The Detroit Tigers must get their salary arbitration work done by Thursday and there’s one key player looming over the deadline.

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The Detroit Tigers have one player looming over its salary arbitration deadline on Thursday, even though they have several players to deal with.

Tarik Skubal, their two-time American League Cy Young winner, is in his final year of salary arbitration. In October, when MLB Trade Rumors offered its annual salary projections for arbitration-eligible players, Skubal was projected for $17.8 million.

That was before Skubal won his second consecutive Cy Young Award. It was also before an offseason worth are full of trade rumors surrounding the impending free agent. With Scott Boras as his agent, it's possible for this process to get contentious, even though the Tigers have Skubal’s rights for next season.

Detroit must reach agreements with its salary arbitration eligible players by Thursday or else the two sides will exchange numbers and head to an arbitration hearing in February.

Detroit Tigers Arbitration Players

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Skubal was seen by Detroit sports fans during the Christmas break as he attended several games in downtown Detroit in one weekend. Whether it was a subtle pressure campaign or just a guy going to ball games, it gave the appearance to fans that Skubal wanted to stay long-term. To do so, it’s possible Detroit will have to sign him to the biggest pitching contract in history.

If there is any Tigers player that could be on his way to an arbitration hearing its Skubal. With two straight Cy Young awards, he can command the biggest single deal for a pitcher in salary arbitration, which was the deal Julio Urias signed in 2023 at $14.25 million. Shohei Ohtani made $30 million on an arbitration deal in 2023, but he plays both ways.

All eyes will be on Skubal, but seven other stars from last year’s team are on the arbitration rolls. They include pitcher Casey Mize ($5.4 million), pitcher Will Vest ($3.3 million), infielder Zach McKinstry ($3.5 million), outfielder Riley Greene ($6.6 million), infielder Spencer Torkelson ($5.1 million), outfielder Kerry Carptenter ($3.5 million) and pitcher Tyler Holton ($1.7 million).

Detroit did some work to clean up its arbitration rolls in November when the Tigers had to tender contracts to those players. They non-tendered infielder Andy Ibanez and pitcher Jason Foley and let them become free agents. Detroit also non-tendered pitcher Tanner Rainey, but he returned on a minor league deal. Detroit also released Alex Lange through the designated for assignment process.

Plus, Detroit reached one-year deals with outfielder Matt Vierling, catcher Jake Rogers and pitcher Beau Brieseke.

On the veteran side, infielder Gleyber Torres accepted the team’s qualifying offer of $22.05 million for 2026 and opted not to hit free agency. Pitcher Jack Flaherty triggered his $20 million option to stay in Detroit for another season.