The Detroit Tigers have been one of the better teams in Major League Baseball over the past year and a half, and plenty of that has to fall on what left-hander Tarik Skubal has done on the mound.
Skubal has undoubtedly been the best pitcher in Major League Baseball over the past two seasons and looks poised to win his second Cy Young award.
Posting a 2.16 ERA and striking out a ridiculous 105 hitters in 83.1 innings, it’s impossible to suggest that any player in the game has been more valuable to a team than Skubal has been to the Tigers, other than Aaron Judge and a few other players.
But with it comes a lofty extension, something the Tigers haven’t wanted to hand out in recent years.
If the Tigers don’t want to pay Skubal, there will be many teams waiting for him when he hits free agency to give him the contract he’s looking for.
The Tigers don’t have to worry about that for a few more years, but it’s a pressing situation that the front office must understand will arise.
During an appearance on the MLB Network radio show, Tigers general manager Jeff Greenberg spoke about the current state of negotiations between the two sides.
“Obviously elite talent and elite compete,” Greenberg said. “He’s constantly looking to get better… in terms of the extension stuff, [Tigers president of baseball operations] Scott [Harris] and I have talked about it since we got here. One of the foundational goals here is to acquire, develop, retain as much elite talent as we can. We’re going to keep those conversations behind closed doors.”
Every day that Skubal doesn’t have an extension, the price likely goes up.
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There’s a reason why many teams around the league view Skubal as someone who could get one of the biggest contracts in Major League Baseball history for a pitcher, if not the biggest.
He’s well deserving of everything that’ll come his way, but Detroit has to understand there’s a price attached to that.
