Tigers’ monster free agent signing just signaled victory in Tarik Skubal hearing

While Tigers fans have anxiously awaited news on the outcome of Tarik Skubal's arbitration hearing, which took place today in Phoenix, the front office was busy behind the scenes.

No one thought that the Tigers were going to move on any of the free agent pitchers they'd been connected to — Framber Valdez, Lucas Giolito, Chris Bassitt, Nick Martinez, or Jose Quintana — until they found out whether or not they would have to pay Skubal $32 million.

Either they feel really good about the way the hearing went, or they have an answer that Tigers fans just haven't been clued into yet.

Per Jeff Passan, they signed Valdez, the biggest free agent starter left on the market and perhaps the biggest free agent starter on the market as a whole, to a three-year, $115 million deal. He gets two guaranteed years and an opt-out after 2027, along with a $20 million signing bonus.

Tigers fans would love to believe that maybe we can have it both ways — Skubal wins his arb hearing, and the Tigers are still willing to make a statement by signing Valdez — but realistically, it looks like they feel that they have this one in the bag. It wouldn't be surprising if we get another Passan notification within the next few hours to confirm.

Tigers finally make the huge move fans have been waiting for, sign Framber Valdez to a three-year deal

This is the big free agent move that Tigers fans have been waiting for. Valdez is exactly the No. 2 that this team has been missing, and they're going to retain him after Skubal, Jack Flaherty, and Casey Mize leave following the 2026 season. This keeps the Tigers in contention even if they lose their two-time Cy Young winner.

Of course, it comes with some bittersweetness if the Tigers did indeed win the hearing. It would still be a travesty for the Tigers to pay a guy like Skubal just $4 million more than Alex Cobb made in 2025, but that's the dichotomy that the team set up here. They lose: they don't stretch their wallets to make a necessary addition to the team. They win: they add more, but they deal with the optical nightmare of pay Skubal well below his market value.

We still don't know the outcome of Skubal's hearing, so for now we can just bask in this signing — and hope that the Tigers have come to their senses to realized that they can have it both ways.