Twice consecutive American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal is one of the best pitchers, if not the best, in MLB. This winter, he entered the final year of his contract with the Detroit Tigers, and the two sides couldn't reach an agreement on his salary for the upcoming season. Skubal and the Tigers could go to an arbitration hearing if they don't settle before the scheduled date.
Detroit and Skubal filed salary figures so far apart that they seemed destined for a trial — the Tigers filed at $19 million while Skubal and his agent, Scott Boras, filed at $32 million, which would be the highest arbitration salary for a player in MLB history. In 2015, Detroit awarded David Price the highest ever arbitration salary for a pitcher at $19.75 million. Skubal hoped to blow that figure out of the water.
Thankfully, the Boston Red Sox don't have to go through this process with their ace and AL Cy Young Award finalist, Garrett Crochet. Despite a self-imposed Opening Day deadline last year, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow on March 31 managed to sign Crochet to a six-year, $170 million extension to keep him in Boston beyond the two seasons of control on his initial contract.
Now, Crochet makes $28.33 million per year, which is likely more than Skubal will be awarded in his arbitration hearing, but his salary hike has been worth it for Boston so far. Crochet posted a 2.59 ERA, a 1.028 WHIP, 255 strikeouts (which led MLB) and 46 walks over 205.1 innings. He earned his second All-Star nomination, second place in Cy Young voting and came in eighth in the AL MVP race.
Red Sox smart (and lucky) to avoid Tarik Skubal-Tigers-style arbitration fiasco with Garrett Crochet
Despite being part of the business of baseball, arbitration hearings can be contentious. The Tigers will have to present a case for why Skubal, the best pitcher in the AL two years running, is only worth $19 million, a pittance compared to his expected price in free agency one year from now. Not only will that be exceedingly difficult, it could sour any chance Detroit had to extend the pitcher, which was already quite small.
If Crochet were up for arbitration this year, he wouldn't have filed for a salary as high as Skubal did — Crochet is a top-tier pitcher, but Skubal has the trophies in his case to warrant possibly the highest salary ever for a pitcher before free agency.
Crochet's figure still would've been high and the Red Sox's recent hangups about spending money could've sent them to a hearing. In 2025, Boston and Jarren Duran filed just $500 thousand apart and couldn't settle before the deadline, but managed to avoid a hearing by meeting in the middle.
The Tigers and Skubal have a long few weeks of negotiation ahead of them before their hearing date in February, and a potentially ugly trial after that. The Red Sox were quick, smart and lucky to avoid such a fate with their star pitcher.