In 2025, the Detroit Tigers paid Alex Cobb 15 million dollars while paying Tarik Skubal 10 million dollars.

With baseball players being valued at approximately 8-10 million dollars per WAR, that means Skubal (6.6 fWAR) was worth approximately 52.8-66 million dollars. In 2024, Skubal earned 6.0 fWAR while earning a little over 2.5 million dollars.

Since 2024, Detroit ownership has drug their feet on an extension. Poor reflection on ownership to lock up a homegrown, (likely) 2x Cy Young winner.

The arbitration system in baseball is unnecessary. This is the first domino in the greater player salary/contract dispute.