{"id":550663,"date":"2026-02-02T17:12:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/550663\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T17:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:12:20","slug":"tigers-tarik-skubal-face-pivotal-13-million-decision-before-spring-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/550663\/","title":{"rendered":"Tigers, Tarik Skubal face pivotal $13 million decision before spring training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back-to-back AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal filed at $32 million. The Detroit Tigers<\/a> filed at $19 million. A resolution for Skubal’s arbitration process to determine his 2026 salary will hopefully come to light on Wednesday, according to The Athletic’s Cody Stavenhagen<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The $13 million difference between Skubal’s asking price and the Tigers’ provided salary is the largest in MLB’s arbitration history.<\/p>\n

In just a few days, Detroit’s representatives will present their case<\/a> as to why Skubal, the best starting pitcher in baseball, deserves to make $13 million less than he and his agent, Scott Boras, think he does.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Skubal wins, his $32 million would set the record for a salary from arbitration, beating out Juan Soto’s $31 million in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why Skubal could win this case\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s nearly unheard of for a starting pitcher to have as dominant a season<\/a> as Skubal did consecutively. In 2025, he led the AL in ERA (2.21), ERA+ (187), and FIP (2.45). The lefty led the Major Leagues in WHIP (0.891), BB\/9 (1.5), and SO\/BB (7.30).\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Given Skubal\u2019s two consecutive years of dominance, the case could break arbitration precedent, creating a higher ceiling for star players. Arbitration salaries for pitchers have generally lagged behind position players,” wrote Stavenhagen.<\/p>\n

“[David] Price\u2019s $19.75 million record has stood for 11 years. That number would be worth close to $27 million today, factoring in inflation.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next offseason, Skubal reaches free agency and could break the record<\/a> for a contract given to a starter. But before that, the 29-year-old will try to set the precedent that he believes in what he deserves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back-to-back AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal filed at $32 million. The Detroit Tigers filed at $19 million.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2386],"tags":[5,147,53,2583,4,594],"class_list":{"0":"post-550663","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-mlb","13":"tag-tigers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116002156954508002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550663","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=550663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}