Will Tigers Pony up for Skubal

[papalawrence]

26 minutes ago, GalagaGuy said:

Has a team in contention for the post season ever traded a superstar they knew wouldn't be returning to the team the following season?  Imagine if we get to the trade deadline next year and the Tigers are leading the division.  Is there any chance the Tigers would trade Skubal to a NL team if the return was good enough?   Sounds wild, but imagine a team being willing to give you a couple top prospects.   

I wouldn't see Harris doing that. I think he might get traded in the off-season. There should be huge offers. 

[papalawrence]

36 minutes ago, tiger2022 said:

It was called a non-competetive offer.

In no way do I believe Harris made a low-ball offer 2 years prior to free agency, to appease the fans. Whatever the offer was, I don't believe it was made to make him look good to fans. That's not Harris' style

[chasfh]

25 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

You don't know that.  

Sure I do. So do you.

[oblong]

Harris doesn’t strike me as a guy who does things to appease the fans.   He’s smart.  His staff is smart.  They have talked with Boras about a deal. It would be stupid not to.  Don’t spend money until you have to.  There will be no hometown discounts.  There will be no buying our arb years up front.  He’s going to test the open market.  It’s his right and obligation to his fellow players. They all know the risks.  There’s nothing we can come up with that they don’t already know or have considered.  If the team is not competitive next year then they could move him them.  If they are then they use him up and wish him well. 

[Tigermojo]

1 hour ago, tiger2022 said:

They never disclosed the details but I remember reading it was non competitive.  

I'm sure there's something on the web about it.

It's here:

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2025/08/02/tarik-skubal-contract-free-agency-tigers-mlb-scott-harris/85475569007/

"The Tigers are not expected to sign Skubal to a long-term contract extension before his current deal is up after 2026. The Tigers have previously offered Skubal a contract extension but it wasn't a competitive offer and they were rejected."

[Tiger337]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

Sure I do. So do you.

I really don't.  I don't think there is anyway for fans to know these things.

[holygoat]

2 hours ago, tiger2022 said:

They never disclosed the details but I remember reading it was non competitive.  

I'm sure there's something on the web about it.

What was the actual offer?

[1776]

1 hour ago, oblong said:

There will be hometown discounts.  

Would I be correct if I suspect you left out a word in this sentence? Just a guess. 

[IdahoBert]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

Harris doesn’t strike me as a guy who does things to appease the fans.   He’s smart.  His staff is smart.  They have talked with Boras about a deal. It would be stupid not to.  Don’t spend money until you have to.  There will be hometown discounts.  There will be no buying our arb years up front.  He’s going to test the open market.  It’s his right and obligation to his fellow players. They all know the risks.  There’s nothing we can come up with that they don’t already know or have considered.  If the team is not competitive next year then they could move him them.  If they are then they use him up and wish him well. 

This!

[oblong]

31 minutes ago, 1776 said:

Would I be correct if I suspect you left out a word in this sentence? Just a guess. 

Yes.  

[IdahoBert]

I’m no great seer, but I’m assuming Skubal is an ordinary man of extraordinary athletic ability so I don’t think the Tigers have any chance of signing him to a long-term contract.

He would have to have the kind of sentimental attachment to the team - which many of us possess - not to sell himself to the highest bidder, which I sincerely doubt the Tigers could be. And the Tigers know this.

He’s a walking corporation and corporations tend to operate by the bottom line. I would never hold it against him to follow suit with this rational trajectory. 

How the club responds to this challenge will be interesting. 

[gehringer_2]

35 minutes ago, oblong said:

Yes.  

No!

[IdahoBert]

By the way, is there anything about Skubal’s arsenal that would have a tendency to increase the likelihood of an injury? He’ll be 30 years old a little after the end of next season. 

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

By the way, is there anything about Skubal’s arsenal that would have a tendency to increase the likelihood of an injury? He’ll be 30 years old a little after the end of next season. 

I don't think two previous elbow surgeries is normally considered a marker for projected longevity. OTOH, nobody can predict anything. If they could the Tigers wouldn't be down half a dozen pitchers.

[IdahoBert]

1 minute ago, gehringer_2 said:

I don't think two previous elbow surgeries is normally considered a marker for projected longevity. OTOH, nobody can predict anything. If they could the Tigers wouldn't be down half a dozen pitchers.

Thx. I just can’t see the Tigers tying up hundreds of millions of dollars for numerous years which would make it harder for them to do all sorts of other things, especially when it’s a pitcher and pitchers are so prone to injury. I mean, position players are prone to enough injuries as it is. 

[SoCalTiger]

On 8/9/2025 at 7:07 PM, chasfh said:

If it's known that the market is going to bear 10/400, then I would rather Harris not even bother with an 8/300 offer. Maintain your dignity, Scott.

agree

[tiger2022]

14 hours ago, papalawrence said:

In no way do I believe Harris made a low-ball offer 2 years prior to free agency, to appease the fans. Whatever the offer was, I don't believe it was made to make him look good to fans. That's not Harris' style

You don't have to believe anything you don't want to. The report is out there that he gave a non competitive offer.  I'm sure the Tigers will offer Skubal something, but it won't be accepted.

[chasfh]

14 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

I really don't.  I don't think there is anyway for fans to know these things.

In this case, it’s just logic. The price tag for Correa going into free agency was publicly reported to be $300 million. The Tigers were the first team to offer him a contract, and it was below that number. Therefore, the chances that Correa was going to take that deal before anyone else could make him an offer was zero. If there’s anything to debate further on that, it’s whether Avila knew Correa would never accept the deal, or whether he was too stupid to know Correa would never accept the deal. Personally, I think Avila was smart enough to know Correa would turn down the deal, but taking the other side of that proposition is defensible.

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, chasfh said:

In this case, it’s just logic. The price tag for Correa going into free agency was publicly reported to be $300 million. The Tigers were the first team to offer him a contract, and it was below that number. Therefore, the chances that Correa was going to take that deal before anyone else could make him an offer was zero. If there’s anything to debate further on that, it’s whether Avila knew Correa would never accept the deal, or whether he was too stupid to know Correa would never accept the deal. Personally, I think Avila was smart enough to know Correa would turn down the deal, but taking the other side of that proposition is defensible.

And yet, since nobody did offer Correa 300M, Al would have been pretty irresponsible to over offer the market. If anything , it was Carlos that made the mistake, not Al. I don’t blame the Tigers for Carlos not understanding his own market value. 

Edited Monday at 12:26 PM by gehringer_2

[chasfh]

25 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

And yet, since nobody did offer Correa 300M, Al would have been pretty irresponsible to over offer the market. If anything , it was Carlos that made the mistake, not Al. I don’t blame the Tigers for Carlos not understanding his own market value. 

The Giants signed Correa to a $350 million deal after he had turned down the Tigers, so as of the day of that offer, Correa understood his own market value just fine. But even that’s not the point.

Edited Monday at 12:52 PM by chasfh

[papalawrence]

1 hour ago, tiger2022 said:

You don't have to believe anything you don't want to. The report is out there that he gave a non competitive offer.  I'm sure the Tigers will offer Skubal something, but it won't be accepted.

Negotiations always start somewhere. My guess is that Harris opened the door and Boras said Skubal is going to test the open market, which is what Boras almost always does. My point was that I do not believe Harris made any offer to appease the fans, to "look like he tried." My hunch is that Harris did this to let them know Detroit would love to have him stay there for his next contract. Boras likely said there will be no early extension. 

[oblong]

by definition when there's only one offer made, and contractually given the rules on tampering, there can be only one team offering, then it's "non competitive".  Whoever used those words wasn't incorrect and that may have been all they were trying to convey.  In this context it doesn't mean "insulting" or "low ball".  It means that the player wants to get offers in a competitive environment.

[Tiger337]

 

55 minutes ago, chasfh said:

In this case, it’s just logic. The price tag for Correa going into free agency was publicly reported to be $300 million. The Tigers were the first team to offer him a contract, and it was below that number. Therefore, the chances that Correa was going to take that deal before anyone else could make him an offer was zero. If there’s anything to debate further on that, it’s whether Avila knew Correa would never accept the deal, or whether he was too stupid to know Correa would never accept the deal. Personally, I think Avila was smart enough to know Correa would turn down the deal, but taking the other side of that proposition is defensible.

Just because somebody wants a certain amount doesn't mean they are going to get it.  Players often end up getting less than they demand.  

 

[chasfh]

7 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

 

Just because somebody wants a certain amount doesn't mean they are going to get it.  Players often end up getting less than they demand.  

 

He did end up getting an offer over $300MM after the Avila lowball offer, but that's not the point.

[Tiger337]

Just now, chasfh said:

He did end up getting an offer over $300MM after the Avila lowball offer, but that's not the point.

And then it was voided because he failed to pass the physical.  My point is though that not every player gets what they want. Presumably Avila did not have access to the Giants offer before he made his offer (assuming that he did make such an offer).  He may have thought that Correa was too much of an injury risk and would not get a better offer.  Bregman made demands that were not met last winter and Harris reportedly made an offer for less than he wanted.  Why is that different?