The Jays made deals with three of the four arbitration eligible players:
- Daulton Varsho and the Jays agreed to a $10.75 million contract for 2026.
- Ernie Clement signed for $4.6 million.
- Tyler Heineman signed for $1,237,500, a rather strange number. Some guys like these weird numbers.
Eric Lauer looks to be heading to arbitration, unless they make a last-minute deal, but most teams don’t negotiate after exchanging
arbitration numbers. Lauer filed for $5.75 million with the team going with $4.4 million. I have no opinion on which number is better, but then I’m always happy when players get more money.
The big news was that the Tigers and Tarik Skubal filed numbers with a rather large disagreement on how much he is worth. The Tigers filed at $19 million and Tarik at $32 million. If anyone is interested, I’d take the $13 million spread between them.
I kind of expect Skubal to win that one.
I don’t understand the Tigers’ thinking in this case. I’ve always thought the arbitration hearing is a terrible thing for a player to go through. The team has to stand up and list all the reasons why the player isn’t worth what he thinks he is. I can imagine that isn’t all that fun for the player. And I would think it would hurt the team’s chances of signing the player when he becomes a free agent.
On top of that, I don’t understand what the Tigers can say to suggest Skubal isn’t as good as he thinks he is. Leading the league in ERA two years in a row, isn’t as good as it seems. The 241 strikeouts is less than 250? Leading the league in walks per nine innings isn’t something they are interested in. I guess he did allow three runs in his two playoff starts.
Everyone is saying that the Phillies are ‘favorites’ to sign Bo Bichette and that Bichette is looking for $300 million. I’d imagine that would mean a 10-year contract, which would take him to 38 years old. I’m not sure I’d want Bo in his late 30s, but more power to him if he can get it.
It does seem like a lot of money for a second baseman. And he’s only a year removed from a very poor offensive season. His sprint speed has been dropping, Baseball Savant has him at the 21st percentile. But, if he gets a few teams bidding on him, maybe he can get that much.
I see birenball doesn’t think he’s going to get that much:
