Tarik Skubal has won back-to-back American League Cy Young Awards.
He’s one of the major winners of this offseason, too.
That’s because Skubal is set to earn $32 million in 2026 after winning a precedent-setting arbitration case against the Detroit Tigers, according to ESPN.
A three-person arbitration panel sided with Skubal at a hearing this week after the Tigers filed to pay their left-handed ace $19 million this season.
Skubal’s $32 million salary marks a new record for an arbitration-eligible player and raises the standard for top-of-the-market pitchers moving forward.
Here’s a quick refresher on how MLB’s arbitration system works:
Typically, players with between three and six years of MLB service are arbitration eligible. Before every season, arbitration-eligible players and their teams have a deadline to agree to a salary for that year.
In most cases, players and teams reach a settlement without requiring a hearing.
When they fail to come to an agreement, both sides file a salary number and take it to an arbitration hearing, where a panel decides what the player will make.
And in most cases, the salary proposals are in line with what comparable players made while going through the arbitration process.
But Skubal’s was not most cases.
He is 31-10 with an MLB-low 2.30 ERA over an AL-high 387.1 innings over the past two seasons. Skubal achieved the AL pitching triple crown in 2024, while his 469 strikeouts and 12.6 wins above replacement (WAR) over the past two seasons are the most in baseball.
Because he has five years of service time and could invoke a “special accomplishment” provision based on his award history, Skubal was able to propose a salary in line with all of MLB’s best pitchers, not just arbitration-eligible ones, according to ESPN.
The Tigers’ submission, meanwhile, wasn’t even the most ever offered to a pitcher during arbitration.
The $13 million gap between the proposals commanded extra attention as Skubal — who is part of the MLB Players Association’s executive subcommittee — challenged the status quo.
And as he does so often on the mound, Skubal came away with a victory.
Skubal’s salary broke a record previously held by Juan Soto, who settled for $31 million with the Yankees in 2024 in his final year of arbitration.
It shatters the previous high mark for an arbitration-eligible pitcher, which belonged to David Price when he reached a $19.75 million agreement with the Tigers back in 2015.
Skubal’s raise of nearly $20 million (from last year’s $10.15 million salary) is also significantly higher than the previous-record $9.6 raise that Jacob deGrom earned from the Mets from 2018-19 during his arbitration years.
And the $32 million salary greatly exceeds the $19.9 million made by Toronto star Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in 2024 in what was previously the highest payday awarded to a player by the panel.
Skubal’s victory was particularly notable considering MLB’s collective bargaining agreement with the MLBPA is set to expire in December, with the potential for widespread reckoning — and the threat of a work stoppage — looming.
This has been an eventful offseason for Skubal, who was the subject of trade speculation as he enters his final year of team control. Those rumors have largely quieted, however, as the Tigers loaded up for a third consecutive playoff berth.
Detroit agreed this week to a three-year, $115 million contract with another All-Star left-hander in Framber Valdez, who is set to slot behind Skubal and form a potent 1-2 punch.
Between Skubal and Valdez, the Tigers are set to pay about $70 million to their top two pitchers in 2026.
