Tigers' Scott Harris is applying lessons from Madison Bumgarner saga to Tarik Skubal

As the Detroit Tigers try to manage a difficult situation with their ace Tarik Skubal, it is important to look back and remember that Tigers president of baseball Scott Harris dealt with and learned from a similar situation in San Francisco.

Harris was the general manager of the Giants from 2019 to 2022 where he served under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. His first month with the Giants in November of 2019 was an interesting one. San Francisco’s left-handed ace Madison Bumgarner was a free agent and the team had to decide whether to bring him back. Leading up to that offseason, Zaidi and the Giants had to decide whether to trade or extend Bumgarner or just let him walk.

Sound familiar?

Scott Harris can draw upon experience with Giants for Tarik Skubal contract situation

Bumgarner had long pitched under one of the most team-friendly deals in baseball. Under that contract he put San Francisco on his back and led the team to the 2014 World Series title with a heroic performance. He was expecting an extension at some point after that, but it did not come.

The Giants had been burned twice in the same decade after extending their aces. Both Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain got massive, well-earned extensions after early dominance in their careers, but natural decline and injures made those deals age quite poorly.

Not only that, but the Giants had committed a lot of money to Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija after the 2015 season and those deals did not age all that well either.

Zaidi came in to cut costs and win on a tighter budget essentially which is why he decided not to hold on to Bumgarner. The team could have traded him away, but a hot streak before the deadline in 2019 prevented that.

Obviously, Skubal and Bumgarner are different cases. Bumgarner was one of the most elite postseason pitchers ever but he never won a Cy Young Award. Skubal has won the last two. 

Bumgarner was not necessarily in decline in 2019, but he was not the same pitcher that he was in 2014.

What did Harris learn from the Bumgarner saga? Well, Bumgarner went on to get a big contract from the Arizona Diamondbacks that did not age well and he did not even make it to the end of that deal as the D-backs released him. Skubal does not seem like he will flame out that quickly, but today’s ace can be tomorrow’s afterthought so it is always a risk when trying to determine how long a pitcher’s dominance will last.

The two situations are not entirely comparable, but there are similarities. As the Tigers try to figure out what to do with Skubal, do not be surprised if Harris draws on what he learned from Zaidi and the Bumgarner situation in San Francisco.