Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris recently spoke about a potential extension for Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, and his comments may not be what Tigers fans want to hear.
After a relatively slow start to the season by the leftyโs standards, Skubal has cranked it way up over his last six starts. Dating back to his outing against the New York Yankees on April 8, Skubal has registered 50 strikeouts and just one walk in 37 innings pitched, allowing four runs for a striking 0.97 ERA.
With the ace rounding back into the Cy Young-level many expect from him now, itโs bringing back a question many around baseball have been pondering over the last couple years. Namely, are the Tigers going to sign him to a long-term deal?
If Harrisโ recent appearance on New York Postโs โThe Showโ podcast with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman is any indication, we may not know about it any time soon:
โMy hope is that we have press conferences where weโre talking at length about these things, but I think itโs a little premature and probably a little unfair to talk about it publicly,โ Harris said, noting how the Tigers kept Colt Keithโs extension under wraps until it was signed last January.
When Sherman pressed on, highlighting the big difference in dollars between Keithโs extension and a potential Skubal extension, he asked Harris whether the Tigers had the money to sign Skubal. Again, Harris wavered:
โWe canโt just decide weโre going to sign him,โ he said. โIt takes two parties and some understanding of the parameters of a deal, and it takes a willingness on both sides to actually do it.โ
Harris then spent the next two minutes praising Skubal for his attention to detail and motivation to improve with every start. And while he never directly answered Shermanโs question about whether the organization has the finances to sign Skubal, he did finish his comments on the pitcher by saying: โIf we can find a way to keep him, weโre going to try to find a way to keep him.โ
The Tigers have had a checkered history over the last decade or so with long-term deals. The richest deal in team history was the teamโs eight-year, $248 million extension the Tigers handed to Miguel Cabrera in 2016, one that didnโt quite live up to the initial deal Cabrera signed in 2008, but one that kept Cabrera a Tiger for the remainder of his career.
But one year prior, the Tigers signed starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann to a five-year, $110 million deal that very quickly turned into an albatross. That same offseason, the Tigers signed outfielder Justin Upton to a six-year, $133 million deal that was shipped off to the Los Angeles Angels via trade midway through the 2017 season.
Currently, the Tigersโ highest-paid player is Javier Baฬez, who signed a six-year, $140 million contract in 2021. For his first three seasons in Detroit, Baฬez looked like a disappointment, but the newfound utility player has turned it around in 2025 while looking like a completely different player.
However, these contracts might look downright puny in comparison to the one Skubal might get. If the Tigers want to sign Skubal, it likely will take the biggest contract the franchise has ever handed out to keep the 2024 Cy Young winner in Detroit for the long haul.
The good news for the Tigers is that Skubal is under team control until the end of the 2026 season, giving both parties plenty of time to negotiate a deal.
But until Skubal signs on the dotted line or Harris takes a more firm stance, itโll always be a topic of conversation.
