Why it's actually much better the Tigers lost arbitration battle with Tarik Skubal

Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal enters the 2026 season with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. He won his arbitration battle against the Tigers and is entering a contract year, but the Tigers have to be somewhat happy they lost their arbitration hearing.

Imagine if the Tigers had won and Skubal made $13 million less in 2026 than the $32 million he is now set to make. The guy is a professional and he is going to go out and compete no matter what, but there surely would have been some sort of resentment towards the team had it not gone his way.

The Tigers reportedly never had any fears about a "arbitration hangover" in the words of ESPN's Buster Olney, but deep down there had to be some fear about what Skubal would really be pitching for in 2026.

Tigers have to be happy Skubal won arbitration hearing

Had he lost and earned $19 million for 2026, still a raise over what he made in 2025, Skubal would have really been pitching with a chip on his shoulder and may have been pitching for a massive contract more than a World Series.

Now that the contract situation went his way, he is probably pitching more for a title than he is a contract even though detractors would point to his one start in the World Baseball Classic as evidence that he is thinking more about his big payday next offseason.

Never mind the fact that many other pitchers on Team USA employed a similar strategy even though they did not get covered the same way. Plus, it seems clear that Skubal's agent Scott Boras was heavily involved in the decision to only make one WBC start.

Thankfully, the arbitration and WBC drama is now behind Skubal and the Tigers. Now, Detroit can focus fully on the season at hand and trying to win a World Series.

They will do it with the understanding that this is almost certainly going to be Skubal's last season with the Tigers. From the arbitration stuff to the reports that their extension offers have been almost embarrassingly low, everyone expects Skubal to sign with a different team in free agency.

That means the Tigers have to capitalize on their ace while they still have him. They have a really strong rotation that, when healthy, is definitely good enough to win a playoff series or two so they need Skubal to be locked in and the same version of himself that he was in 2024 and 2025 if they want to make a run.