Tarik Skubal emphatically shuts down negative Tigers contract PR with comments

We've already learned that any smoke coming out about the Detroit Tigers' contract negotiations with Tarik Skubal needs to be taken with a grain of salt, but now we can hear straight from the horse's mouth that a lot of this stuff is warped, if not flat-out untrue.

Skubal appeared on Foul Territory and set the record straight. Maybe. The Tigers ace made it clear that he expects to play in Detroit in 2026, but more importantly, he dropped some interesting nuggets about the numbers we've seen bandied about so far.

"There's not a lot of fact or truth behind any of these things, especially even contract stuff. It's like I don't even know where they come up with these numbers," Skubal said.

Interesting. But can we take it at face value? What does it really mean?

Tarik Skubal calls out the media for untrue reporting on his negotiations with the Tigers

A lot or a little could be read into Skubal's comments. After all, no player wants to be seen as the villain, and he could simply be trying to save face amid reports of his $400 million contract projections.

Of course, at the end of the day, business is business, and if he eventually makes a decision that is unpopular in Detroit, he'll have to live with those consequences and then fans will know this video clip was a lie.

However, there's another way to look at this. Skubal reportedly loves playing in Detroit and is a big fan of the organization, which could be used to pressure the Tigers to pony up. But in this case, he could also be letting them off the hook. After all, he pretty much said he wants to stay here, and perhaps he'd be willing to listen to hear the Tigers out, even if it means settling for a little bit less than what he ultimately wanted.

Yet another angle could be the start of a fissure between Skubal and his agent, Scott Boras. Boras is famous for leaking slanted information to the media to turn up the heat and extract maximum value for his clients, though Skubal's own comments about these reports being false would make it seem that he'd disapprove if they actually were coming from Boras.

Finally, we could just take it at face value. As arguably the most dominant pitcher in the game, it's understandable that this would become a huge story even if there's not much there to make a story out of. Think of NFL quarterback contracts. Every time a star QB comes up for a new deal, it becomes a record-setting one, even if guys who signed in the past are better. That's the way the market moves, and it's what the media expects, so projections skew in those directions and reports are influenced by it.

Whatever it means, it doesn't seem like Skubal is scrambling for the exit, and for that Tigers fans should breathe a sigh of relief.