They’re nonetheless recovering in Detroit after the Tigers’ crushing Division Sequence loss to the Mariners when it was reported the opposite day they’ll very possible now even be dropping their greatest participant, Tarik Skubal.
In any case, nobody believes Tigers proprietor Chris Ilitch has the abdomen to compete with the massive market behemoths and dole out a file 8-9 yr, $40 million per deal for a pitcher, such because the Yankees gave Boras consumer Gerrit Cole in 2019. Which leaves the Tigers between a rock and a tough place with Skubal, who’s about to win his second straight Cy Younger after main the American League in ERA (2.21) and ending second in strikeouts. Do they maintain onto him yet one more yr, understanding that, with out him, their prospects of attending to the World Sequence in 2026 — and even making the postseason in any respect — are significantly diminished?
Or do they commerce him now in hopes of getting most worth of 3-4 prospects for him versus solely draft decide compensation if he leaves as a free agent? To that I might submit — assuming Boras wouldn’t do a brand new contract for Skubal earlier than he hits the free market — there are just a few groups that might commerce for him as a one-year rental with the arrogance they may signal him.
The Mets are a type of groups — truly possibly the one one with the Dodgers and Yankees seemingly at full quota with their beginning pitching — they usually definitely have the required prospect quarry even when Nolan McLean is deemed untouchable. Plus, they couldn’t have a much bigger want than a high quality frontline beginning pitcher. The query for them is simply how excessive is Steve Cohen keen to let his payroll go? With Juan Soto at $51 million and Francisco Lindor at $34 million, is he actually ready so as to add one other participant at $35-$40 million?
I might additionally add this for Cohen’s consumption: As nice a pitcher as Skubal has been, in Recreation 5 of the ALDS — the most important recreation of his life and the most important recreation of the Tigers season — when he got here off the mound after six innings and 99 pitches, he stated he was achieved. The place have you ever gone Bob Gibson — three World Sequence, eight full video games?
If I needed to guess, I’d say the Tigers ignore Boras’ proxy-based contract drum beating, maintain onto Skubal and trip him so far as they’ll subsequent yr.
IT’S A MADD, MADD WORLD
It positive appears to be like as if the wedding between Bryce Harper and the Phillies has shaped some cracks. In his season-end mediafest, Phillies GM Dave Dombrowski raised eyebrows when he cited Harper — whose .844 OPS this yr was his lowest since 2016 and his .261 common lowest since 2019 — as considered one of his considerations going ahead. “He’s still a quality player. He’s still an All-Star caliber player, but he didn’t have an elite season like he’s had in the past,” Dombrowski stated. “I guess we will only find out if he becomes elite or continues to be good.” It’s price noting that Dombrowski was not the GM when the Phillies signed Harper to the 13-year/$330 million contract in 2019 (the biggest in historical past on the time). Solely final yr, Harper and his agent Scott Boras had been pushing Phillies proprietor John Middleton for an extension. Within the ALDS in opposition to the Dodgers, Harper was 3-for-15 with no RBI within the Phillies’ 4 recreation loss. … If there was ever a necessity for a wage cap in baseball, look no additional than the Dodgers-Brewers ALCS the place the Dodgers’ payroll of $350 million is $229 million greater than the seventeenth ranked Brewers. That’s greater than the TOTAL payrolls of greater than 20 groups. As well as, within the four-game Dodgers sweep, the Brewers went with Aaron Ashby as an opener in two of the video games whereas the Dodgers’ 4 starters — Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani — had a mixed AAV wage of $165 million.
