Detroit Tigers avoid arbitration with all arbitration-eligible players but Casey Mize

The Detroit Tigers have avoided arbitration with three of their arbitration-eligible players, with the exception of Casey Mize.

Chicago White Sox v Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox v Detroit Tigers / Mark Cunningham/GettyImages

The MLB arbitration deadline was bumped up a day, so teams had to act fast to avoid going to arbitration with any of their arbitration-eligible plyers. The Detroit Tigers are no exception, and luckily, they have agreed to terms with most of their players so far.

The Tigers agreed to terms on contracts with three of their four arbitration-eligible players for the 2024 season. Those players were Tarik Skubal, Jake Rogers, and Akil Baddoo.

All three players received deals very close to their projections from MLB Trade Rumors. Skubal received a one-year, $2.65 million contract, which is just a tad more than the $2.6 million he was projected to get.

Rogers received a $1.7 million contract for 2024, which is $300,000 less than the $2 million he was projected to get, so in theory, the Tigers saved a little bit of money there.

Baddoo was projected at $1.7 million, and he got $1.55 million for 2024. The Tigers saved a bit of cash there as well.

All three of these deals were reported by Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press.

Obviously, it's great that the Tigers were able to get these guys under contract for the upcoming season. Getting Skubal that cheap for what he could produce in 2024 could end up being a massive bargain. It will likely drive his price way up for 2025, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

The Tigers were also expected to retain most of these players. Rogers will likely be the team's starting catcher in 2024, and Skubal is slated to be the team's ace.

The only one that may come as a surprise is Baddoo. He has been seen as an easy trade piece all offseason long. There really isn't a spot on the roster anymore after the addition of Mark Canha.

Casey Mize and the Tigers didn't reach an agreement, so they will almost certainly go into hearings with him, the first since Michael Fulmer in 2019 and only the second since 2001. Chris McCosky of The Detroit News opined that we shouldn't expect the arbitration process to be as contentious as it's been in the past, as the practice has evolved in recent years, but we'll have to wait to see how things shake out in February.

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