{"id":515981,"date":"2026-01-12T00:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T00:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/515981\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T00:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T00:08:18","slug":"ex-yankee-josh-donaldson-blasts-tigers-over-tarik-skubal-negotiations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/515981\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Yankee Josh Donaldson blasts Tigers over Tarik Skubal negotiations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tigers\u2019 looming salary showdown with their superstar pitcher has been dubbed a \u201cfumble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson blasted the Tigers over their arbitration negotiations with ace lefty Tarik Skubal,<\/a> days after the sides failed to reach a contract agreement for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little behind but just saw the arbitration news on Skubal,\u201d Donaldson wrote on X<\/a> on Saturday. \u201cI mean the Detroit Tigers fumble this big time. Skubal wants 32 mill Detroit offers 19 mill. Trash organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewJosh Donaldson for the NY POST<\/p>\n

The $13 million arbitration gap between Skubal and the Tigers is the largest in MLB history.<\/p>\n

Skubal, 29, has won back-to-back American League Cy Young awards, cementing himself as one of the top pitchers in the sport.<\/p>\n

Over the past two seasons, Skubal has posted an eye-popping 31-10 record with a 2.30 ERA and 469 strikeouts in 387 \u2153 innings across 62 outings.<\/p>\n

Skubal will seek to break the highest salary for an arbitration-eligible pitcher, a record set by David Price\u2019s $19.75 million in 2015.<\/p>\n

Donaldson, a former American League MVP, is familiar with the trappings of the arbitration process better than most.<\/p>\n

Fresh off winning the award in 2015, Donaldson and the Blue Jays failed to reach an agreement as he submitted a $11.8 million figure while Toronto countered at $11.35 million.<\/p>\n

\"DetroitTarik Skubal AP<\/p>\n

The sides agreed to a two-year extension, buying out two of his arbitration seasons before agreeing to a then-record one-year, $23 million deal in February 2018 in his final foray through the process.<\/p>\n

Despite Donaldson\u2019s desire for a multi-year extension, that never materialized and the Blue Jays ultimately traded the All-Star months later \u2014 a possible outcome for Skubal.<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s Jon Heyman reported in November that there\u2019s a $250 million gap in extension talks <\/a>between Skubal and Detroit, which has led to his name floating in trade rumors all offseason.<\/p>\n

The Mets and Yankees have both been linked to the lefty, with the latter feeling \u201cit would take half the team\u201d to pry him away, Heyman reported earlier this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Donaldson, who spent two disappointing seasons <\/a>in The Bronx from 2022-23, is not the first former Yankee to weigh in on the Skubal saga this offseason.<\/p>\n

Cameron Maybin, a former Tigers outfielder, ripped his former team\u2019s handling of Skubal<\/a> in November \u2014 while urging the Yankees to swing a trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cTigers clearly don\u2019t want to pay him or they would have already. \u2026 I\u2019m sure they\u2019re trying to justify or convince themselves [how] it\u2019s probably not smart to pay Skubal what he deserves,\u201d Maybin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tigers\u2019 looming salary showdown with their superstar pitcher has been dubbed a \u201cfumble.\u201d Former Yankees third baseman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,53,2583,24332,4,62,185,382,594],"class_list":{"0":"post-515981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-tigers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-tigers","11":"tag-detroittigers","12":"tag-josh-donaldson","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-new-york-yankees","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tarik-skubal","17":"tag-tigers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115879221943258426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}