Detroit Tigers star left-hander Tarik Skubal will be paid $32 million this year after a three-person salary arbitration panel ruled in his favor Thursday over the $19 million salary the team proposed, sources told ESPN.
The victory for Skubal, 29, the two-time reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, not only bests the record salary for a player in the arbitration system by $1 million but shatters the previous high mark of $19.9 million for an award from a panel.
How the decision affects Skubal’s future, which has been clouded by questions about the Tigers potentially trading him before he becomes a free agent after this season, is unclear. The Tigers’ signing of the best free agent left on the market, Framber Valdez, to a three-year, $115 million contract hours after Skubal’s hearing ended Wednesday gave Detroit one of the best No. 2 starters in Major League Baseball — or a backup ace should the arbitration decision change Detroit’s posture, which has been to enter the season with Skubal.
Salary arbitration took a front-and-center role this winter because of the stark disparity between Skubal’s request and the Tigers’ counteroffer. The system allows players with between three and six years of major league service time to propose a salary, typically based on past comparables. While more than 90% of arbitration-eligible players settle their cases, Skubal was intent on trying to push the boundaries of the system.
The gambit worked. Leaning on a seldom-used provision in arbitration that allows players with five-plus years of service and so-called “special accomplishment” — back-to-back Cy Youngs qualify — to compare their salaries not just to those in the arbitration system but all major league players, Skubal built his case around starting-pitching salaries that have exceeded $40 million.
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Both parties recognized the potential implications of the case, with Skubal enlisting MLBPA deputy executive director Bruce Meyer to provide the rebuttal. The panel found the argument compelling enough to shake up the typically stable and linear arbitration system, even if few players can come close to matching Skubal’s excellence.
Juan Soto held the previous record for an arbitration-eligible player when he settled on a $31 million deal with the New York Yankees in 2024, the same season in which Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. set the mark for the highest panel award at just shy of $20 million.
David Price previously held the record salary for an arbitration-eligible pitcher with his $19.75 million agreement with the Tigers in 2015 — a number below which the Tigers filed on Skubal. Jacob deGrom had the biggest raise for an arbitration-eligible pitcher ($9.6 million) in 2019, jumping from $7.4 million to $17 million in a deal with the New York Mets.
Skubal, who last winter settled with the Tigers at $10.15 million, more than doubled the previous record raise, an unambiguous victory for players. Skubal is a member of the MLB Players Association’s eight-man executive subcommittee, the most powerful bloc of players. With the expiration of the collective bargaining agreement Dec. 1 and a lockout by MLB all but certain without a new deal by that date, some saw the case as a litmus test for the expected fight to come.
There are few better to stake a case on than Skubal. He returned from flexor tendon surgery in 2023 and immediately dominated, portending a 2024 campaign in which he struck out a league-leading 228 in 192 innings with a 2.39 ERA, 18-4 record and unanimous Cy Young win. He followed with an even better performance in 2025, going 13-6 while posting a 2.21 ERA with 241 strikeouts in 195⅓ innings as the bulwark for a team that reached the postseason for the second consecutive year.
One of 12 pitchers to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards and one of 23 to win the award multiple times, Skubal is expected to seek a contract of at least $400 million in free agency. The highest total contract for a pitcher belongs to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million), and future Hall of Famers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander own the record for average annual value ($43.3 million).
ESPN’s Jorge Castillo contributed to this report.
