New Skubal Report from Heyman: Deal Appears Far Apart

New Skubal Report from Heyman: Deal Appears Far Apart

Over the weekend, John Haymon reported that the Tigers and TK Scoo may be over $200 million apart in contract talks. Let’s talk about it all today on Locked on Tigers. You are Locked on Tigers, your daily Detroit Tigers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. What is up everybody? Welcome back to another edition of Locked On Tigers. I’m of course your host, Scott Bentley. Today is Monday, October 20th, 2025. Thank you so much for making Lockdown Tigers your first listen every single day. We are free and available wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every single day. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code lockdown MLB for $20 off of your first purchase. Welcome in everybody. Happy Monday. Happy Monday, rather. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend as I continue to a remember how to speak, b mess with my lighting in my new apartment. So, let’s talk Terry alliteration. Not even trying. And we get some alliteration. That’s, you know, it’s going to be a good Monday. All right. It’s going to be a good Monday. Um, let now let’s talk about some not so fun stuff, which is potentially this future of Trick School and the Tigers organization. um later Friday, actually it was pretty early Friday, even later Thursday, you know, Haymon had John Haymon, New York Post, very big name uh baseball analyst and baseball journalist and reporter and basically put out an article that said straight up that TKO and the Detroit Tigers could be 200 million or more apart in contract negotiations and then all heck broke loose loosed loose in the Tigers fan base. There’s a couple of things, you know, when I I first started doing show prep and writing down, you know, just kind of word vomiting, honestly, my my thoughts and feelings toward the article itself and and the report and everything. Um, Evan Pzel of the Freep did a follow-up report on that as well. That’s worth checking out. Obviously, support our fantastic, amazing beat writers. But I realized that I had a lot more thoughts about this than than I originally thought. I thought it was just going to be like, oh, you know, maybe five minutes, maybe a segment, and then I realized that I could I I could really talk about this. Um, I think the first thing I want to bring up, and the reason I want it to be first is because it’s something that you should always keep in the back of your mind, is something I learned as a young adult in this industry is that information like this, okay, contract information, trade information, player personnel news gets out to the public almost always on purpose. Okay. Someone has a motivation and John Haymon I I I’m sure he’s a great dude. I I don’t know him personally obviously and he is very good at his job and has been doing it for a very long time. All the respect in the world, no disrespect intended. Um he is also very notably throughout the years uh a agent mouthpiece sometimes if you will and there’s a lot of I don’t want to use the word evidence but there’s a lot of uh stories and a lot of things that have happened over the last 5 10 however many years you want to go back that kind of point to that possibly being the case. So it and and I don’t again I I have nothing but respect for John Haymon. He he’s fantastic at his job and and is one of the biggest sports and and baseball journalists literally on the planet. Okay, all the respect. Um I I I bring this up not to talk about the the like legitimacy of the report. I I I genuinely believe that Heymon would not put something out there if he didn’t believe that that was the case. The reason I bring it up is because information again as I started the show with has uh there there is a a a motive behind that information getting into the hands of Heymon in the first place and I think that that is something that we need to focus on. Um, sometimes players, agents put reports out like that so that the general public can put, you know, more pressure on or that there can be, you know, more pressure to maybe provide more money. Sometimes teams give reporters information to be like, hey, report this, you know, put this out there because of X, Y, and Z. like that. That is that is always and I struggle with with it sometimes too, but that is always something that is so important to remember. The contract that Haymon references in the piece was offered after the 2024 season. So, this isn’t like some new contract that was offered last week and they’re 200 mil apart. This is under the belief that Boris and Scubble want 400 mil and that after the 2024 season, the Tigers offered Scuba a deal that was less than 200 mil. That is all this report is. That that is that is the report. And there’s nothing wrong with that. That that’s insightful and we will talk about it the rest of this show. But I think it’s also important to understand where everything comes from and what exactly you know and specifically we are actually talking about. Crochet who’s going to be runner up for Sai Young behind Scooble got a $170 million contract this past off season. Right. I don’t know exactly when this scoo contract was offered, whether it was before or after the crochet extension, but that’s someone that you can at least mildly point to and be like, okay, if there’s anyone that you can maybe compare contracts with, that’s who it was going to be last winter at least. And here we are now with a report about, you know, over 200 mil difference. And the offer was reportedly less than the crochet deal, which was again about 170 mil. So all of that is just to to give you and more so to maybe even to remind myself of where all this information is coming from and whatnot. But my biggest point here, okay, my my biggest point, aside from from all of the the politics and the logistics that goes on behind the scenes, and I want to make this clear, too. I have never worked for a Major League Baseball front office, okay? So, maybe this is just common practice and it always doesn’t come out uh, you know, to the public eye, and I’m just an idiot. Okay? May maybe that’s all true to different varying degrees. My biggest point here though is why would you even offer him something that is so obviously not going to be accepted and is like borderline if not just straight up insulting? What benefit do the Detroit Tigers have of making this a an official offer if it was one? A $200 million difference. I I I would legitimately rather you just didn’t make an offer at all. I I I think that is actually my stance here. Like seriously, you you know he’s not accepting 150 or 100 mil or whatever you offered him. You you know he’s obviously not taking that. So why slap him and Boris in the face and give them It’s like have have any of you ever played FIFA? Now it’s called whatever it’s called. But you know how in FIFA when when this is a crazy poll, but it just popped in my head. when you’re negotiating transfers with a player in the video game that I’m referencing and your initial offer is so not even close to in the realm of what they are willing to accept that instead of the player saying no and then countering or no and then try again, they literally just walk out of the room and you can’t offer them a deal anymore. That’s like what this feels like. It’s like 200 mil. I I in my time as like a a living conscious human being on this planet that followed the game of baseball to the point where I am constantly reading, you know, other people’s work and and articles and reports and and and watching, you know, reports that are put out there. I cannot remember a time where I have ever heard of a discrepancy in contract that is anywhere even remotely close to this one. And of course it’s it’s you know our team that that happens to. So okay, let’s keep the ball rolling here. I I I have a few more thoughts in regards to this, but I just want to lay the foundation kind of and and talk about, you know, where Haymon might be getting his reports from, who he’s hearing his information from, um the timing of all of this, etc., so that we can kind of paint a clearer picture with all of it. We’ll continue doing that hopefully right after this. First though, we got to talk to you all about our friends over at Game Time. Game time absolutely rocks. 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So download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code lockdown MLB at for $20 off of your first purchase. Again, that’s promo code Loc for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download Game Time today. All right, everybody. Welcome back here. Segment two, Lockdown Tigers. I appreciate you all so much for tuning in as always, making us your first listen every single day. Shout out to the Everydayers that do tune in every day, even in the middle of the off season here for the Detroit Tigers. I appreciate you all greatly and we will of course be back tomorrow. Also, again, a lot of this information I’m using is from Evan Pzled of the Freep. You can go check out all of his work. Cody Stanhagen of the Athletic does great work. I mean, all of our beat writers, Macaussky, Beck, uh, Woodbury at M Live, I’ve used a lot of his stuff, um, this season as well. Um, then again, obviously, John Haymon, New York Post, um, is very frequent on a lot of podcasts you should listen to, very informative stuff. Um, and yeah, writes obviously a lot of his information is is uh, Yankees based or Yankees and Mets based, but he does all of baseball and covers it very well. So, be sure to check all of that stuff out. Um, so in regards to this this report and everybody, you know, freaking out and everyone’s running around like their hair is on fire, as my dad used to say, I I think again I I I go back to why even offer something that that you know is just going to be worlds apart. I I also want to make it clear like I understand how negotiating works as well. Okay, I I understand that it starts off far apart and you have two very very different offers and then you gradually knock a little bit off, knock a little bit off, go down and then you agree on a price tag, right? But in this case, again, it is so egregious that I would rather you just shut up. Like seriously, I I I I think that that is actually how I feel about this. And maybe they have a plan. And maybe again, I’m just wrong and stupid. that that’s that’s been the case plenty of times in my life. Okay, both of those things. And maybe they sign him. It just this doesn’t seem productive to me. It doesn’t seem productive. And again, timing is important. Crochet got 170, so whatever. You know, there’s a report of an $und00 million deal from the Tigers at one point um you know, within the last couple of years. So maybe they have a plan and they still are confident that they can bring him back, but we’ll see. I I don’t have I don’t have confidence in that. And I I think that they probably offer him some new deals in the coming weeks. The reason why I think they offer him some new deals relatively soon or a new deal within the next month is because they want to know where they stand in regards to their number verse his number going into GM meetings and going into winter meetings in December. The reason why they want to know where they stand going into those two is because that is when players are traded the most in the off season and when players are signed the most during the off season. So if they’re hundreds of millions of dollars apart, well then he he I I would say he very well may get traded. I would even put it as relatively likely if they are truly that far apart going into winter meetings. If there’s even a chance that this front office feels like they can extend him long term, they’re also going to probably roll the dice in that scenario. Or if if they don’t get what they’re asking on the trade market, then they’ll obviously just take their chances and and use him for another year as well. The most obnoxious part of this conversation and the most obnoxious part of really all of this saga I is seeing every fan base’s just awful mock trades for him. It is I’m already so tired of it. We we don’t even know who’s playing in the World Series yet. Nonetheless, like the season being over, we’re still in the in the CS and we all I’m already just wanting to projectile vomit from all of these. And again, it’s the it’s it’s the ridiculous value that’s obviously not going to happen. It’s not the concept of trading him that I think we should all come to terms with. That’s a very real possibility. So ultimately to put a bow on on today’s scubble conversation uh because we will likely be talking about this almost every single day this winter. Like legitimately there’s a chance it’s close to every day. Um anytime there is any report or or news and note or anything in regards to this, you know, development, we’re gonna have to talk about it. And so it’s going to be a long off season in that regard. It’s going to be a headache, so buckle up. I’ll be here for the ride if you so choose to to join. Um, but it is objectively one of, if not the biggest storyline in Major League Baseball this winter. It’s not too often that the the arguable best player at a position, especially one as important as starting pitcher, is put on the trade market with team control left. And that has a very real chance of happening. The thing that I want to highlight here to put a bow on this is the three possible outcomes that I I think I guess objective might be too harsh of a of a word, but like I don’t really see any other way to go about this besides these three possible outcomes for this scoo saga. Okay, to continue our alliteration train here, you either A, choice A, extend him, deal gets done, you pay up, school was a tiger for a long time. There you go. Simplest solution. B is you trade him. You realize that the difference in asking price is a hundred plus million dollars and you trade him for a handful of promising young players that can make your team better long term. C is you keep him for the year. You don’t trade him. You offer him a qualifying offer that he obviously will reject. He walks in free agency. You get one more year out of him. That’s 2026. And then when he leaves in free agency, you get a comp pick in the following Major League Baseball draft so that you can, you know, inject some talent externally that way as well. That’s really it. like it the the interesting addition I guess I’ll say to option C there is that if you do keep him for another year there is some nuance with maybe you treat this off season differently or this you know the trade deadline in 2026 differently. Um I think Scott Harris’s comments in regards to the trick school window not existing are absolutely absurd and just completely not true. I also think that he is obviously going to say that. And if I my last name was Harris instead of Bentley, I would say the same thing, too. What am I gonna tell the entire fan base that we’re a one-man team and that we’re Yeah, if he leaves, we’re going to be uncompetitive. No, obviously that’s not what anybody wants to hear. So, I I don’t agree with him, but he also really can’t say anything else. My point in bringing that up is that the fact here is you have one of the two best pitchers alive right now for one more year if you so choose if you want it. And if that’s all that is left and no one offers you a trade that’s worth his value and you’re $200 million apart in contract negotiations and it’s just going to be one more year and then he’s done and you get a comp pick out of it, then you would like to believe that the team would be significantly more aggressive in what they add for the 2026 season. I’m not saying you trade Clark and McGonagal and Brousenia, okay? I’m so exhausted of every time I mention, you know, oh, they should be more aggressive here that, you know, people are like, well, you want to trade Clark. No. Okay. No, you can be aggressive and not trade three of the best prospects in baseball. I I I promise you also can be aggressive without spending $500 million in free agency in one off season, right? Or 700 mil like the Dodgers did one year. like it is possible to to be more aggressive without going to the absolute extreme. I’m just saying that it would be a a requirement for me as a a fan that that’s requirements mean nothing to anybody and certainly not this front office. If they choose path C, I I need more aggressiveness in the players they add externally because there is a scuba window whether they want to admit it publicly or not. And if you just sit on your hands and do literally nothing, I will be extremely critical and call out the hypocrisy of what we’re even trying to do here because it won’t be trying to win a World Series at the major league level. Now, as a whole, let’s put a bow on I’ve said that like three times already, so I’m going to stop saying that. Let’s end the school conversation for today right after this. Got to talk to you about our friends over at FanDuel. The NFL season is here. FanDuel has an offer you won’t want to miss. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and get 300 in bonus bets if you win. That’s right. You pick a bet, put down five bucks, and if it hits, you’ll unlock $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I love how FanDuel gives me so many ways to play. I’ve built parlays, tried player props, and even followed live lines during games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little bit of something riding on the action. So whether you’re a casual fan or love diving into the stats, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. So what are you waiting for? Visit fanuel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. All right, everybody. Welcome back here. Third and final segment of Locked on Tigers. Appreciate you all for tuning in as always. This is this school, you know, circus really at this point is this is a a front office defining decision that they are left with. Um, and that Harris and co are are staring down the barrel of. If you pick correctly, then ultimately down the road, this is going to be celebrated and we’re going to talk be talking about how genius of a move this was, right? whatever of those options they pick, if it ends up being the right one, then then it’ll be celebrated. We have seen teams in the past trade players, star players at their peak for unbelievable returns, and it has helped. Uh I I think one of the biggest examples in my lifetime is Zack Grinky being traded from the Royals, right? They get Lorenzo Kane, they get Alcitus Escobar, they get Jake Odorizi who then they trade later and they get um you know James Shields and and oh I almost just spilled my water but I caught it because I have Puma like reflexes, right? That then they trade Odorzy and get um I think Wade Davis was in that deal, right? like that that domino effect of trading Granky who who was at his peak you know won a Sai Young for them was was a young star in this league you know uh again kind of kickstarted the core that would become the 2014 and 2015 you know Royals that made back-to-back World Series. So I I think that it is important to know that these things can work out. We also have seen the opposite. We have seen teams trade massive stars for a lot of prospects that ended up doing next to nothing. A and that’s one where I mean there’s there’s a lot of examples of that and we have seen teams that aren’t able to break get over the hump of of being you know a playoff contender to a World Series contender or you know a regular season contender to to a legitimate playoff threat. like taking that step forward is you’re talking about a few wins here and there. Like it’s really between the margins and um it’s tough. It’s tough. Plenty of front offices in in Major League Baseball history have chosen wrong in that regard. Um so I I think it’s just safe to say that this will be easily the defining move of the Harris tenure whether he builds a winner or not. Right? If he builds a winner then it’s defining in a positive light. If he he doesn’t and this thing takes a big step back after Scoo leaves and they don’t get much of anything in return, whatever, then it will be defining for for a negative reason. But I’m I’m glad we did this. I’m glad we did this because I I feel like we’ve been kind of like beating around the bush with the scuba conversation. We’ve talked about it every single day, I think, since the Tiger season ended because there’s reports coming out every day, but I haven’t taken like a full show to just kind of word vomit all of this. So, I’m glad we did it. Again, go check out John Haymon’s uh report and whatnot. He he’s talked about it plenty over the last three or four days. And I think that’s all I got for you today. Um, Tigers viewership. I I guess that was a cool report I I saw over the weekend that the Tigers TV viewership saw the largest bump of any team in Major League Baseball according to uh FanDuel Sports Network. So, that’s super cool. And it’s an excuse to be aggressive in the offseason, which we’re all kind of looking for. I I there’s just there’s no more excuses left, right? like your attendance went up, your viewership went way up, your national TV games like uh the amount of nationally televised games you were a part of went up. That they also were very highly watched. The the school Sunday night uh baseball start was one of the most watched Sunday Night Baseballs in years. Um the playoff game uh one of the most watched ALDS games that game five in many, many years. like that there is no excuse not to spend some money after what the team has shown these last two calendar years at this point. Um income I I mean just like team and team success uh roster success having for one more year as we just talked about like there really no other excuse to not excuse me no other excuse to not be uh be be a try to be a little aggressive this winter. So, we’ll talk about all the ways they can be obviously the rest of the offseason here. Okay, I’m going to go watch uh watch the ALCS here and and see if we get a World Series matchup as I record this on Sunday afternoon. And we will be back tomorrow. Appreciate you all for tuning in. As always, after you make us your first listen, make Lockdown MLB Game Night your second listen every game, every night. As long as a baseball game is being played, even when they’re not, they they will still be there over at the Lockdown MLB YouTube channel will be livereamed after the final game. Every night goes final. So, go check all them out. They do a great job. Okay, buckle up cuz uh here we go. Okay, here we go. Peace and love going to Therby’s dope. And I’ll catch youall tomorrow, baby. Go Tigers.

Today we discuss the Detroit Tigers recent report from John Heyman in regards to a Tarik Skubal contract extension.

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