Tigers insider confirms Scott Boras drama at play regarding Tarik Skubal arbitration

Superagent Scott Boras has loomed large over the Tigers and Tarik Skubal's arbitration debacle, which kicked off last Thursday when both sides revealed their figures and found a $13 million chasm between them.

Fans quickly took sides, but it's already become harder for us to puzzle out our true feelings on the matter when information keeps coming.

On Wednesday, Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reported that the Tigers had offered Skubal $19.8 million ahead of their numbers exchange, which would've broken David Price's $19.75 million record the Tigers set in 2015, but they ended up filing at $19 million. That sounds like an intentional lowball. Point: Skubal?

But Chris McCosky of the Detroit News followed up later that evening to clarify: the Tigers had offered $19.8 million weeks ahead of the deadline, but Boras reportedly didn't counter and shut down negotiations until deadline day. McCosky speculated that the Tigers would've been willing to go up past $20 million, even to $25 million, but Boras dug his heels in and stood firm on the record-shattering $32 million that has shocked baseball.

Conflicting information about Tigers' offer to Tarik Skubal ahead of arbitration deadline has everyone converging on a common enemy

Skubal isn't simply a Boras puppet. Boras works for Skubal, and the player will always have the last word. But Boras is also an exceptional case in baseball. He's been around the game for almost 50 years by now, has negotiated some of the biggest deals in its history, and he's employed by most of the league's top stars. Even if the player technically has the power in this relationship, who is a 20-something guy, who hasn't even had to negotiate his way through free agency yet, to tell baseball's most infamous agent how to do his job?

Even if Skubal were privately willing to take $19.8 or even $19 million from the Tigers, he also pays Boras to do exactly what he's doing: get him a lot of money.

McCosky continued, "It feels to me like Boras is using Skubal as a weapon to blow up the arbitration system. He's long been opposed to it, as has the players' association, and with the collective bargaining agreement expiring after this season, he's got the perfect player and the perfect case to expose what he perceives as the folly of the arbitration process."

That tracks when taking into account some other tidbits from insiders; Ken Rosenthal wrote earlier this week that both sides were entrenched in their positions, and things are more likely than not headed to a hearing.

It's all going to be up to the arbitration panel to decide whether to stick to the status quo or to blow it all up. Even just a week gone from the deadline, the picture is becoming a little clearer. This might be less Tigers vs. Skubal and more Tigers and the System vs. Boras and the C4.