Arbitration agreements

[Roger King]

The Tigers getting their house in order today with some arbitration agreements:

Torkelson - 1 year.  $4.075 million

Greene - 1 year - $5 million

McKinstry - 1 year - $4.2 million

Vest - 1 year - $3.95 million

Probably more to come...

Roger King
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[Michael W]

A few years ago, I would not have expected McKinstry to get paid more than Tork!  Things certainly change.

Michael

[Roger King]

Adding Casey Mize to this list:

1 year - $6.15 million

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[Peter Welch]

Mize goes from $2.3 million to $6.15 million.  $6.15 mil for a mid-rotation starter isn't a bad deal.  I wonder what Mize will be looking for as a free agent after this season (assuming he stays healthy and has a similar season)?   Maybe $15 million per season?  If the Tigers splurge to keep Skubal, they might not pay to keep Mize.

Peter

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Sent: Thursday, January 8, 2026 3:12 PM
To: Michael W <miw...@gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: Arbitration agreements

 

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[Roger King]

A couple more for the list:

Carpenter - $3.275 million 

Holton - $1.575 million

Skubal was the only one not to agree on terms.  As I'm sure many have read, the Tigers offered $19 million and Skubal/Boras countered with $32 million.  Little bit of a gap!

If they don't agree on a salary (say, $25 million which is pretty much in the middle), it will go to arbitration and it will be one of the 2 submitted salaries.  Tiger fans on social media are already screaming that the Tigers are being cheap but the Tigers offer is the highest ever for a pitcher in arbitration.  I don't see this as a nail in the coffin for Skubal coming back long-term.  This is just a process...though if it actually does get to the arbitration hearing, it will be weird to potentially hear the Tigers make the case for why Skubal isn't really deserving of anything more than the $19 mill :-)

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[Michael W]

> If the Tigers splurge to keep Skubal, they might not pay to keep Mize.

We should be realistic.  We aren't going to keep Skubal.  Boras will wait for the free-agency period, and there is no chance we will outbid everyone.  

The only chance Skubal stays is if he has a poor/injured season and the Tigers are still willing to give him $400m to appease the fans.

Michael

[Sean Sweda]

The Tigers offer of $19 million is comically bad, I can’t imagine Boras settling for anything close to the mid-point.

Sean

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On Jan 9, 2026, at 11:01 AM, Roger King <pnag...@pnagency.com> wrote:



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[Peter Welch]

Skubal is so gone after this season.  We really should be entertaining trade offers.

Peter

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[Paul Meloche]

I read an article yesterday that said the Tigers had spoken to Lucas Giolitio and Chris Bassit. The writer said the Tigers were interested in one or the other if Skubal's arbitration salary came in on the low end. Which is disturbing to me in that it sounds like management feels they can't afford $13M for one year of a veteran starter (Skubal's arbitration figures are $19M and $32M).

FWIW, Giolito was HS teammates with Jack Flaherty.

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[Peter Welch]

I'd like to know what the Tigers' case will be in the arbitration hearing against giving Skubal more than $19 million.

It would be funny if they bring up "he doesn't go more than 6 innings in game 5 of the playoffs".  ;-)

Peter

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From: Paul Meloche <meloc...@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2026 11:06 AM
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Cc: detroit...@googlegroups.com <detroit...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Arbitration agreements

 

[Roger King]

I saw a blurb similar to what Paul mentioned about Skubal’s arbitration result somehow affecting what they might spend on these other potential pitchers.  Surely, the Tigers didn’t put out that $19 million offer thinking Skubal would just accept it? Most cases don’t make it to an actual arbitration hearing, of course but they also don’t just end up with the player accepting the team offer straight up. Usually it’s somewhere in the middle from what the player submitted and the team.  

So the Tigers should have been already planning to pay Skubal more than $19 million.  

Despite the constant narrative from fans that Ilitch is running the Tigers on some kind of shoestring budget, I actually haven’t seen much hard evidence that Harris is being restrained financially. Not that they don’t have a budget, but obviously Ilitch has spent before which is why we still have the Baez contract and they went after Bregman last season etc. 

My impression is Harris is running the team the way he wants to and he actually doesn’t think that signing some big name free agent (of the ones available) to a multi deal will improve the Tigers significantly more than the options they have within.  And as we have discussed, he’s also reluctant to trade young talent at this point to land veterans who might help more in the short term. I believe this is his actual preferred approach and not something dictated by a budget.

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[Peter Welch]

If the Tigers sign one of those guys it probably means they plan to use Melton mostly as a reliever in 2026.  

Verlander is still out there.  🙂

Peter

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Subject: Re: Arbitration agreements

 

[Peter Welch]

Even the late 70s Tigers, which had even more young talent than the current Tigers, traded a couple of their younger players which improved the team (but they also made a couple of stupid trades of younger players, but that was because Tigers' management were cheapskates).  I know it's a bit different environment today, but Harris seems to be really holding his chips tightly, perhaps too tightly.  We'll see.

Peter

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Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2026 12:56 PM

[Michael W]

Maybe having more young talent is what enabled them to trade some of it.

Michael

[Michael W]

>Harris seems to be really holding his chips tightly, 

>perhaps too tightly.

Well, some more than others.  He gave up Malloy pretty easily.

I was wondering though, about the timing.  They traded Malloy for cash right before all the arbitration signings.  And we’ve heard signals they are short of cash.  Normally when I hear a player has been traded for cash, I imagine it’s some negligible sum, but that’s not necessarily so.  Think Babe Ruth.  Perhaps Malloy was traded for a meaningful amount; he’s under team control for quite a while, so it seems plausible.  Is there a way to find out?

Michael 

On Sunday, January 11, 2026 at 12:11:03 PM UTC-6 Peter Welch wrote:

[Roger King]

There is the Tigers TV deal situation:

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2026/01/08/tigers-fanduel-sports-network/88090249007/

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[Peter Welch]

I looked at this further, and, in retrospect, the Tigers did mostly hold onto their top prospects in the late 70s and early 80s to build the core of their 1984 championship team.
The Tigers had an amazing core of young talent in that era.  We have one of the better farm systems in baseball now, but the Tigers' system in the late 70s was one of the best ever.

The key trade I think of is Steve Kemp for Chet Lemon in 1981, although looking back Kemp was 26 at the time and had been with the Tigers for 5 productive seasons, and Lemon was 26 and had been with the White Sox for 6+ productive seasons.  They were only 26 but almost veterans in terms of service time. 
I suppose trading Riley Greene or Tork for an established player who is 25-26 would be close to the equivalent of Kemp-for-Lemon.  It would be like trading Greene for Julio Rodriguez or something like that.

Peter

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[Peter Welch]

Malloy was no longer a trade chip.  He was 2 years-ago.  Same with Jung, who has almost no value now.

Peter

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[Peter Welch]

The bad trade by the Tigers of a younger player at that time was Jason Thompson for Al Cowens in 1980.

Peter

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[Mark Pattison]

Jason Thompson didn't fit Sparky Anderson's mold of what a ballplayer should be, and it was his way or the highway, so off Thompson went.

Steve Kemp had the temerity to ask for more money and it kept bugging Jim Campbell, so he had to be dealt, too.

Mark Pattison

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[Peter Welch]

I think Thompson also complained about his salary which was another reason for Campbell to jettison him.

If the Tigers had Thompson at 1B in 1981, 82 and 83 they might have made the playoffs in at least one of those seasons.  They had the likes of Rick Leach and Enos Cabell playing 1B during those years.  Horrible.  Thompson was very good although he declined quickly after 1983 with injury issues.

Thank goodness the Kemp salary dump ended up working out.  Lemon was a great player for us (and a great player for the White Sox).  Kemp declined pretty quickly with injuries after being traded.

Rusty Staub also got traded because of salary complaints.  The Fetzer/Campbell regime was very cheap.

Ron LeFlore also got traded because Sparky didn't like him (plus LeFlore had drug-use issues which eventually caught up with him).  LeFlore stole 97 bases for the Expos in 1980 after the Tigers traded him for lefty Dan Schatzeder, although LeFlore only had .700 OPS for the Expos.  He must have tried to steal almost every time he was on base.
The Tigers at least got the best seasons of LeFlore's career.

Peter

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[Peter Welch]

I remember at the time I didn't like Sparky's "my way or the highway" approach and silly facial hair policy.  He redeemed himself in 1984 and seemed to lighten up over time.  I had some issues with him (the overuse of Tom Brookens, for example, the HoJo trade, and scrubs like Enos Cabell getting way too much playing time)  but overall he was a  good manager for us.

Peter

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