Tarik Skubal on track for ‘record-setting contract’ in free agency
USA TODAY Sports MLB columnist and insider Bob Nightengale breaks down the hefty pay day Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal could demand in free agency. Recorded in December 2024.
The Detroit Tigers have a lot of items on their offseason to-do list, but MLB fans are focused on one item in particular: what the team plans to do with their ace lefty Tarik Skubal.
Skubal, the overwhelming favorite to win the 2025 American League Cy Young Award, will become a free agent following the 2026 season unless the Tigers sign him to a long-term contract before then. But with the price tag an extension with a player like Skubal comes with, the Tigers might instead trade Skubal before the season starts, presumably for a haul of players and prospects.
A third option the Tigers could pursue is to keep Skubal for the 2026 season and risk letting him go to a different team without any players in return. This would give the Tigers another run at a World Series title with one of the best pitchers in franchise history, but could also push any free agent negotiations with Skubal until after the 2026 season.
MLB teams can’t make any trades until the World Series ends, so we likely won’t know what either side intends to do this week. But some details have already emerged about where each side stands, and we’ll make sure to have all the important updates here.
Per The Athletic’s Jim Bowden, the teams that could be interested in trading for Skubal are the usual suspects of big-market teams who have deep-enough pockets for a long-term extension. These teams include the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and San Francisco Giants.
The Dodgers seem like a logical trading partner for the Tigers, as they have the top farm system as of August, according to MLB Pipeline. Additionally, they’ve shown a willingness to hand out nine-figure contracts to top starting pitchers like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell — though a potential Skubal contract should easily top all of those deals.
The Mets could also make sense as a trade destination for Skubal, as they have a top-10 farm system, an owner willing to spend money and arguably no true ace in the starting rotation. Skubal would change that, and a trade to a National League team would also prevent the Tigers from the having to send Skubal to an AL foe like the Red Sox or Yankees.
On Oct. 23, The Athletic’s Jim Bowden wrote that many front office executives expect the Tigers to shop Skubal during the Winter Meetings, which run from Dec. 7-10 in Orlando.
“When Juan Soto got his $765 million and Shohei Ohtani got his $700 million, they reset the market for top free agents, and the expectation now is that Skubal will reset the market for pitchers and become the highest-paid starting pitcher in history, with a realistic starting price north of $400 million. It’s unlikely the Tigers go there, and if that’s the case, they certainly can’t make the mistake of waiting until the trade deadline to deal him or letting him walk with minimal draft compensation next offseason,” he writes.
The Tigers don’t have to wait until December to field offers for Skubal and can trade him as soon as the World Series ends if they wish, but with so many MLB executives in one spot, the Winter Meetings are often the source for a lot of initial trade discussions.
On Oct. 16, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that Skubal and the Tigers were at least $250 million apart in their contract negotiations. And while the headline is technically true, it was missing some important context.
The $250 million figure wasn’t based on any offers the Tigers have made to Skubal recently, but on the unofficial four-year offer the team made ahead of the 2025 season, one that Skubal rejected. It would be highly unusual for the Tigers to make a similar offer now, with Skubal in line for back-to-back Cy Young-winning seasons and his value rising ahead of his last year of team control.
Still, it could be emblematic of how far away towards a deal Skubal and the Tigers still are, even if we don’t yet know what the Tigers are willing to offer him right now.
This story will be updated.
You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com