Will Tigers Pony up for Skubal

[1984Echoes]

16 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

What evidence do you have that he doesn’t care about the current team? Really bad take. 

And he’s not trading Skubal at the deadline if the team is in contention—if they were committed to extracting value for him, they’d do it now when he is most attractive in trade.

I agree.

IMO... there is NO deadline trade of Skubal.

Either we get a godfather offer soon, and Harris pulls the trigger on a deal he likes...

Or we get an entire season of Skubal and simply take the 2027 comp pick.

Could have some great fun this summer, with Skubal...

Not a bad place to be either way.

[ToledoTigerFan]

The only way to get Skubal to not hit the open market is to knock his and Boras' socks off with an offer. Say like 3-years, $180 million. This allows Skubal to potentially cash in again plus it allows the Tigers to get a massive contract off of the books fairly quickly. Hopefully, CI will pry open his wallet quickly enough to get such a deal done. 

[RatkoVarda]

29 minutes ago, ToledoTigerFan said:

The only way to get Skubal to not hit the open market is to knock his and Boras' socks off with an offer. Say like 3-years, $180 million. This allows Skubal to potentially cash in again plus it allows the Tigers to get a massive contract off of the books fairly quickly. Hopefully, CI will pry open his wallet quickly enough to get such a deal done. 

that would be a horrible deal for Skubal - pitchers get injured and he has already been injured

he is not foregoing $200M+ of guaranteed money to sign for 3 years

[oblong]

2 hours ago, ToledoTigerFan said:

The only way to get Skubal to not hit the open market is to knock his and Boras' socks off with an offer. Say like 3-years, $180 million. This allows Skubal to potentially cash in again plus it allows the Tigers to get a massive contract off of the books fairly quickly. Hopefully, CI will pry open his wallet quickly enough to get such a deal done. 

Nice to see you post TTF.  It's been a long time, eh?

 

[Tiger337]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

Nice to see you post TTF.  It's been a long time, eh?

 

Do we know it's the same person?  

[Biff Mayhem]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

Do we know it's the same person?  

It is! 

[Biff Mayhem]

5 hours ago, ToledoTigerFan said:

The only way to get Skubal to not hit the open market is to knock his and Boras' socks off with an offer. Say like 3-years, $180 million. This allows Skubal to potentially cash in again plus it allows the Tigers to get a massive contract off of the books fairly quickly. Hopefully, CI will pry open his wallet quickly enough to get such a deal done. 

Hey hey TTF!

[tiger2022]

On 1/23/2026 at 11:39 AM, Tenacious D said:

What evidence do you have that he doesn’t care about the current team? Really bad take. 

And he’s not trading Skubal at the deadline if the team is in contention—if they were committed to extracting value for him, they’d do it now when he is most attractive in trade.

It's only a bad take because it differs from your opinion that's he a great GM, that's the only reason.  

He has done virtually nothing to improve the mlb roster since he took over.  I'm a realist and it's fine that there are people that love Harris but if you are honest with yourself, what has he really done?  Not much successfully.

He's been pretty lucky that Avila's players have finally started playing somewhat like mlb players.  Because his guys...Sweeney, Maeda, Morton, Kahnle, Paddack, Urshela, Canha, Vilade, Maton, Nevin, Cobb,  Urquidy, etc were all disasters.  And he had no veteran pitchers in AAA to give the team innings when the inevitable injuries happened.

So he has Torres, who faded down the stretch, always injured Vierling, McKinstry, and Flaherty , who had a good half of a season and was pretty awful last year.  A few RPs, which are always crapshoots...3 years of GM and that is what he has done to make the team better.  And this offseason?  Crickets?

Once again, it's only a bad take because it differs from your opinion of Harris.

[Tenacious D]

I’m not defending Harris’ performance (which I agree has been spotty), but his motives. I disagree with the notion that he doesn’t care about the active roster and only for the players he’s drafted.

[Stormin]

The Tigers record has improved each of the last three seasons and the Tigers have made the post season, and won a series, each of the last two seasons.  If this trend is the result of having the luckiest SOB GM in MLB,   my hope is that the GM continues to be a lucky SOB and gets the Tigers to the World Series.

[Sports_Freak]

Three-peat?

 

[Motor City Sonics]

On 1/23/2026 at 12:16 PM, ToledoTigerFan said:

The only way to get Skubal to not hit the open market is to knock his and Boras' socks off with an offer. Say like 3-years, $180 million. This allows Skubal to potentially cash in again plus it allows the Tigers to get a massive contract off of the books fairly quickly. Hopefully, CI will pry open his wallet quickly enough to get such a deal done. 

Would that "knock their sox off"?   This Kyle Tucker thing just ****ed everyone, man.   Everyone.    

[chasfh]

On 1/23/2026 at 10:27 AM, ToledoBrian said:

What about 5/300 with opt outs after years 3 & 4?

Years 1 and 2

[chasfh]

13 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

I’m not defending Harris’ performance (which I agree has been spotty), but his motives. I disagree with the notion that he doesn’t care about the active roster and only for the players he’s drafted.

Just so I’m clear, are you saying Harris does care about the current roster and also does care to get the most he can out of those Avila leftovers he’s identified as salvageable?

[Tenacious D]

24 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Just so I’m clear, are you saying Harris does care about the current roster and also does care to get the most he can out of those Avila leftovers he’s identified as salvageable?

Of course,  why is this even being debated? Even Ilitch Jr would shoot him out of a cannon if he suspected that Harris was phoning it in with the Avila holdovers.

[1984Echoes]

6 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

Of course,  why is this even being debated? Even Ilitch Jr would shoot him out of a cannon if he suspected that Harris was phoning it in with the Avila holdovers.

Yes.

The theory that Harris doesn't care about this team because it's not his players is beyond ridiculous and asinine.

IMO.

[Tiger337]

37 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Just so I’m clear, are you saying Harris does care about the current roster and also does care to get the most he can out of those Avila leftovers he’s identified as salvageable?

Most of the team is comprised of Avila "leftovers".  

He definitely cares about this team winning.  It's just that I see a lack of urgency to take advantage of Skubal's final two years.  

Edited 2 hours ago by Tiger337

[1984Echoes]

1 minute ago, Tiger337 said:

Most of the team is comprised of Avila "leftovers".  

I believe over the next 2-3 years, possibly starting this year (depending on Clark & McGonigle), that that will start changing. And pick up momentum each year... 2026 offseason could see the loss of several Avila guys... IMO.

[1984Echoes]

Harris will need to decide which "leftovers" are still edible and which ones are moldy and need to be disposed of...

[Tiger337]

9 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said:

I believe over the next 2-3 years, possibly starting this year (depending on Clark & McGonigle), that that will start changing. And pick up momentum each year... 2026 offseason could see the loss of several Avila guys... IMO.

Yes, most will be gone.  If they are not, then something has gone horribly wrong.

[Stormin]

I am not rooting for a side in Skubal arbitration, but curious about the outcome.  I doubt the Tigers are dumb enough to say that Skubal is not currently one of, if not the best pitcher in baseball.  I also think the Tigers would also be foolish to bring up David Price.  The Tigers would be best served by focusing on service time and what pitchers are being paid in 2026.

Wheeler's  2026 salary is $42M, but has 12 years of service and 40.2 career WAR.

Sale's 2026 salary is $18M, Sale has been as good as Skubal the last 2 seasons, Sale won a Cy Young his last complete season, Sale has 15 years of service,  Sale has 57.3 Career War.

Ray's 2026 salary is $25M,   Ray has won a Cy Young,  Ray has 11 years of service and 20.3 Career WAR.

Crochet (5 years) and Webb (6 years) have similar service time to Skubal (5 years) and both have a salary under $25M in 2026.

If service time is taken into account, the $22.5M estimate for Skubal on Spotrac.com seems reasonable.

The challenge for Skubal/Boras may be convincing an arbitration panel that current market value (if Skubal were a free agent)  trumps service time even though the arbitration system is largely built around service time.

 

[Tenacious D]

Probably best to avoid bringing up that Skubal took himself out of the ALDS Game 5.

[NorthWoods]

17 hours ago, tiger2022 said:

It's only a bad take because it differs from your opinion that's he a great GM, that's the only reason.  

He has done virtually nothing to improve the mlb roster since he took over.  I'm a realist and it's fine that there are people that love Harris but if you are honest with yourself, what has he really done?  Not much successfully.

He's been pretty lucky that Avila's players have finally started playing somewhat like mlb players.  Because his guys...Sweeney, Maeda, Morton, Kahnle, Paddack, Urshela, Canha, Vilade, Maton, Nevin, Cobb,  Urquidy, etc were all disasters.  And he had no veteran pitchers in AAA to give the team innings when the inevitable injuries happened.

So he has Torres, who faded down the stretch, always injured Vierling, McKinstry, and Flaherty , who had a good half of a season and was pretty awful last year.  A few RPs, which are always crapshoots...3 years of GM and that is what he has done to make the team better.  And this offseason?  Crickets?

Once again, it's only a bad take because it differs from your opinion of Harris.

You must love reading Petzold.

[NorthWoods]

2 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

Yes, most will be gone.  If they are not, then something has gone horribly wrong.

Agree, and to have ditched them early just because they were "avila guys" would have been malpractice.

[Stormin]

14 minutes ago, NorthWoods said:

You must love reading Petzold.

Boras has Petzold on speed dial.