Back-to-back Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal is a free agent this winter and will likely fetch the richest contract for a pitcher in Major League Baseball history, a mark currently held by the Los Angeles Dodgers' $325 million pact with Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Skubal, who turns 30 on Nov. 20, won the 2024 and 2025 AL Cy Young Awards with the Detroit Tigers and was traded to the Dodgers this summer with the Tigers anticipating they wouldn't be able to afford their homegrown lefty come winter.
Yamamoto's 12-year deal with the Dodgers upon his arrival from Japan broke the record set by Gerrit Cole, who agreed to a nine-year, $324 million contract with the New York Yankees prior to the 2020 season. Cole's deal was signed just days after Stephen Strasburg's
$245 million contract temporarily was the largest in baseball history.
The biggest contract for a left-handed pitcher belongs to the New York Yankees' Max Fried, who signed an eight-year deal with the Yankees after the 2024 season.
With Skubal set to make history, here's a look at the biggest contracts for pitchers through the years:
Biggest MLB contracts for pitchers
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers — $325 million (12 years, 2024-2035)
- Gerrit Cole, Yankees – $324 million (9 years, 2020-2028)
- Stephen Strasburg, Nationals – $245 million (7 years, 2020-2026)
- Max Fried, Yankees – $218 million (8 years, 2025-2032)
- David Price, Red Sox – $217 million (7 years, 2016-2022)
- Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers – $215 million (7 years, 2014-2020 extension)
- Corbin Burnes, Diamondbacks – $210 million (6 years, 2025-2030)
- Dylan Cease, Blue Jays – $210 million (7 years, 2026-2032)
- Max Scherzer, Nationals – $210 million (7 years, 2015-2021)
- Zack Greinke, Diamondbacks – $206.5 million (6 years, 2016-2021)
- Jacob DeGrom, Rangers – $185 million (5 years, 2023-2027)
- Blake Snell, Dodgers – $182 million (5 years, 2025-2029)
- Justin Verlander, Tigers – $180 million (7 years, 2013-2019 extension)
- Felix Hernandez, Mariners – $175 million (7 years, 2013-2019 extension)
- Stephen Strasburg, Nationals – $175 million (7 years, 2017-2023 extension ... *** opted out after 2019)
- Aaron Nola, Phillies – $172 million (7 years, 2024-2031)
- Garrett Crochet, Red Sox – $170 million (6 years, 2026-2031 extension)
- Carlos Rodon, Yankees – $162 million (6 years, 2023-2028)
- Masahiro Tanaka, Yankees – $155 million (7 years, 2014-2020)
- Jon Lester, Cubs – $155 million (6 years, 2015-2020
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The 20 biggest MLB contracts for pitchers with Tarik Skubal set to shatter record
