At 28-15, the Detroit Tigers are tied for the best record in baseball and sole owners of the best record in the American League.
It's difficult to overstate how impressive this organizational turnaround has been. There's praise to go around, whether it's A.J. Hinch's maniacal matchup manipulation, Scott Harris' ability to stockpile talent on a budget, or several stars on the diamond. But not a single person in the organization is more consistently, overwhelmingly impressive than Tarik Skubal.
The hard-throwing southpaw is back on the Cy Young track for Detroit. He has 50 strikeouts and one walk over his last six starts as of . After a couple bumpy outings to begin the campaign, Skubal has settled nicely into flame-throwing mode. It feels like a scheduled W whenever he takes the mound. As a result, fans are wondering what's next on the contract front.
Harris, Detroit's GM, appeared on "The Show" with Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman of the New York Post this week. He was predictably tight-lipped about a potential extension for Skubal, despite an obvious desire to get something across the finish line.
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Tigers GM Scott Harris refuses to divulge information on potential Tarik Skubal extension
Detroit is in a tricky spot here. Skubal is the franchise's most impactful ace since Justin Verlander. Keeping him should be a no-brainer, and there's no reason to think Skubal wants to leave. He openly recruited Alex Bregman in free agency and has never indicated an affinity for bigger markets. He seems utterly content on the plucky, gritty underdog in Motown.
And yet, with contract numbers ballooning around the league, there's a good chance Skubal's next contract balloons over $400 million in total value. He has a chance to set the new benchmark for ace contracts and Detroit, well — let's just say history is not on the Tigers' side.
Harris has always operated with strict restraints on his spending. The Tigers don't traditionally compete with the coastal elites in free agency. Letting Skubal get to the open market would be catastrophic, so the Tigers need to hammer out an extension ahead of time. The odds of both sides landing on a mutually acceptable number before Skubal tests the waters are not great.
This is a challenge Harris understands. He knows a deal of this magnitude requires two sides working together to find common ground and overcome the limitations of a small-market franchise. He is, therefore, unwilling to let too much information slip ahead of time.
"We can't just decide we're going to sign him," Harris said. "It takes two parties and some understanding of the parameters of a deal, and it takes a willingness on both sides to actually do it."
That "parameters" buzzword is destined to invoke uncomfortable feelings in the Detroit fanbase. That sure sounds like the sentiment of a man who knows he does not have the blank-check powers of a GM like David Stearns in Queens or Brandon Gomes in Hollywood. Harris is also afraid to air out these conversations in too public a forum.
"My hope is that we have press conferences where we're talking at length about these things, but I think it's a little premature and probably a little unfair to talk about it publicly," Detroit's GM said bluntly.
Still, Harris makes it abundantly clear that Detroit wants Skubal around long term and will work hard to make it happen.
"If we can find a way to keep him, we're going to try to find a way to keep him."
The current high-water mark for contracts in Detroit is the six-year, $140 million deal Javier Báez signed years ago. Skubal might triple that figure — and Báez is still weighing down the books through 2027, which feels notable. Unless the Tigers stretch their finances in ways we have literally never seen, keeping Skubal on the roster past the expiration of his contract in 2026 will be extremely difficult. Even if Detroit wins a World Series in the next two years, which feels exceedingly possible.