Tigers fans might need to take Tarik Skubal contract updates with grain of salt

In today's episode of The Detroit Tigers Lowball Tarik Skubal, MLB insider Jon Heyman claims the offer Detroit made last year to the superstar starter was for four years and less than $80 million. This comes after Heyman dropped the misleading report of a $250 million gap between Skubal and the Tigers.

The initial report hid the fact that the original offer came a year ago and was not part of recent negotiations. When you think about it logically, of course, the Tigers would have offered Skubal less before the 2025 season. The southpaw had just won the AL Cy Young, but that had been the first campaign where he was both healthy and truly dominant.

With that in mind, any reports that cite what offers were from a year ago are largely irrelevant. From the Tigers' perspective, those would have been exploratory, knowing they had another year to try and hammer out an agreement. For Skubal, the game has changed now that he's put up his second consecutive Cy Young-caliber season.

There's another reason why you should take these reports with a grain of salt, and it has to do with the man producing them, Jon Heyman.

Tigers fans need to be very incredulous with any Tarik Skubal updates coming from Jon Heyman

At this point, it's well known that Skubal's agent is Scott Boras, a man who has made a living extracting every last penny he can for his clients. Or, well, at least the high-end ones. In Skubal, he has a fantastic chance to walk away with a huge payday, not just for the ace, but also for himself.

Because of that, even if the Tigers were willing to do something crazy, an extension isn't likely. Boras took Juan Soto to the open market a year ago, where he was projected to get around $600 million, and ended up walking away with $765 million instead. With blue-chip clients like these, Boras knows the market will get insane.

One of the tools Boras uses to drive up the price tag for his clients is the media, planting reports and trading favors in order to drum up interest or create controversy. In the business of being an insider, sources matter, and a super-agent like Boras is as plugged in as they come.

So, that brings us to Heyman; it's well known that Heyman and Boras have a relationship that goes way back. Some might even call Heyman Boras's mouthpiece. To be fair to Heyman, he's not the only reporter who gets scoops from an agent, but in this particular case, it's important to know where his information is coming from.

That doesn't mean there isn't some truth to what he publishes, but he's getting the Boras-approved side of the story that may be missing context or have a slant. As we've seen with the "$250 million gap" report, he's also motivated to spin things the way Boras would like, so he continues getting fed.

Four years and $80 million may have come up in conversations, but there's a good chance that there's more than meets the eye with that report, as there surely will be with the subsequent reports as this saga continues.