An early look at the Detroit Tigers' 2025 payroll: It's time to spend, Mr. Ilitch

For the 2024 season, the Detroit Tigers had the fifth-lowest payroll in MLB at around $98.5 million, more than only the Marlins, Rays, Pirates, and Athletics. A lot of that has to do with the fact that they were the youngest team in baseball, filled with players who were making league minimum, but it also had to do with ownership and the fact that Scott Harris had a very short leash in terms of spending.

The Tigers did still manage to recruit a couple of free agents, with Jack Flaherty and Kenta Maeda the highest-paid among them. Flaherty was an integral piece of the pitching staff before he left at the trade deadline.

But Harris has all but promised that 2025 will be different. He was asked if he would basically have carte blanche to sign any free agent he wanted, and he said yes. We probably still shouldn't expect the Tigers to turn into some of the highest rollers in the game, but that new freedom for the front office is huge for fans.

To get a better idea of exactly how much the Tigers will have to work with, we should look at how much they'll be paying the players currently on the roster.

Tigers' projected 2025 payroll leaves a lot of room for big free agent spending this offseason

In all, the Tigers have a projected $79 million payroll for 2025 if we include guaranteed salaries, arbitration salaries, and pre-arbitration salaries. That ranks them 27th in MLB, with the Marlins, Nationals and Athletics behind them.

Only three players will receive guaranteed salaries above league minimum in 2025: Javy Báez, making $25 million; Kenta Maeda, making $10 million; and Colt Keith, making $3.83 million. Casey Mize has a club option worth $3.1 million with a $10,000 buyout, but it's more likely than not the Tigers will decline it and they'll head back to arbitration in Mize's second year of eligibility.

Tarik Skubal, Jake Rogers, and Akil Baddoo are also heading into their second year of arbitration eligibility, and Skubal will unquestionably be the highest earner of any of Detroit's arb-eligible players. MLB Trade Rumors predicts $8 million, while Spotrac predicts $11.2 million. Although all parties involved will want to avoid actually going into arbitration, if any player were to win a rare case (arbitration panels usually side with teams), it would be Skubal.

Eight more Tigers are going into the first year of eligibility. MLBTR projects $3 million or more for both Jason Foley and Matt Vierling, $2.5 million for Rogers, and $2 million for Mize. Will Vest, Zach McKinstry, Baddoo, Alex Lange, Andy Ibáñez, and Beau Brieske are all expected to make north of $1 million, but not by much.

The rest of the roster is still pre-arb, so they'll be making league minimum, set at $760,000 for 2025.

Báez, Maeda, and Keith's guaranteed salaries amount to just $38.83 million, which is less than 20% of what the Phillies — for now the top spenders of 2025 — owe their players with guaranteed salaries. There's no need for the Tigers to spend upwards of $200 million, but this just goes to show that they only have up to go from here.