How does Red Sox-Garrett Crochet contract extension affect Tigers with Tarik Skubal?

Tarik Skubal is still under team control for one more season beyond 2025 before he hits free agency in 2027, but Detroit Tigers fans are already starting to sweat about whether the team can afford to lock their ace up long term – and for good reason.

The Boston Red Sox inked their Opening Day starter, Garrett Crochet – who, like Skubal, is currently under team control through 2026 – to a six-year, $170 million extension that will kick in at the start of next season. It's the largest deal ever awarded to a pitcher with just four-plus years of service time. That's obviously great news for Crochet, and it's great news for Skubal and other starting pitchers as they enter contract extension talks. It could, however, mean bad news for the Tigers.

Every league is a copycat league, and Major League Baseball is no exception. Crochet's extension didn't happen in a vacuum, and it will almost certainly impact Skubal's extension talks with the Tigers.

How does Red Sox-Garrett Crochet contract extension affect Tigers with Tarik Skubal?

With all due respect to Crochet, he has one good year under his belt as a starter on a struggling Chicago White Sox team. If his free agent years are valued at $32 million apiece, the value of Skubal's will undoubtedly be higher.

Though Skubal was drafted two years earlier than Crochet – and is, therefore, two years older – both pitchers made their Major League debuts in 2020. All else being equal, Skubal has easily been the more consistently dominant of the two over the past five seasons; both he and Crochet have comparable career ERAs (3.40 and 3.29, respectively), but Skubal has pitched more than twice the number of innings that Crochet has.

There's also the not-so-small matter of Skubal's American League pitching triple crown and Cy Young Award-winning season in 2024. How's that for leverage in contract talks?

If Skubal and his camp use the Crochet deal as the floor in extension talks – and they should – the Tigers are in trouble. There's no way they, or any team, are getting Skubal for less than $32 million per year.

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