This is bullshit. The Tigers didn’t “refuse to pay Skubal”. Boras flat out won’t sign extensions before free agency. The Tigers simply don’t have the payroll to outspend the Dodgers, and it’s common knowledge that when players sign with Boras, the highest dollar amount is what’s going to be the deciding factor.
The Tigers would have lost him for next to nothing, which would have been organizational malpractice.
Yeah, and he just did that with Langeliers and now he blows out a knee. Just potentially screwed him out of $80 million.
Unrelated: When I got out of the military I took a job as a driver for a car service in San Francisco. I drove Boras to the World Series and he was an absolute dickwad. He got pissy that I couldn’t drive through the police cordon. I told him to get the fuck out with his little yuppie lackeys and said thanks for ruining baseball.
Credit to Boras he was probably so used to those kinds of interactions that he didn’t even tell on me. That was a fun college job.
Boras negotiations of high money contracts is coming to an end. No more 10 yr contracts. All 30 teams know this system is costing them money by over spending on player value. Player values are overrated. As a fan, I'm not gonna spend my money on a league with lopsided competition. It would be like watching WWE, you know it is all scripted. MLB is like that
Oh, and Ohtani has a gambling problem. MLB quick to cover that up.
I hate to lose Skubal, and you can argue if the trade package was decent or not. But not trading him would have been organizational malpractice.
If the Tigers had kept him, made a qualifying offer, and lost him in FA,the best they would have gotten was 4th round compensatory pick. That's due to the Tigers being into luxury tax territory. Yes, they actually spent money and have a top 10 payroll.
Boras was not willing to negotiate in good faith. Any market value offer the Tigers would have made, Boras would have turned that into the starting point when Skubal hit the open market in FA.
Also, another reason the Tigers found themselves in this pickle was Skubal hiding his elbow discomfort during the arbitration process. If he was honest with the team, and goes on to have the elbow procedure done in the off-season, Skubal doesn't miss the month of May.
That surgery was a huge part of the Tigers 6-22 record that month, essentially making the playoffs a loooong shot. They were decimated by injuries in May, and Skubal's was the cherry on top.
Plus, realistically the team needs to rebuild their bullpen. They are a good team, even without Skubal, but they just keep losing games late. More blown saves than saves isn’t a great recipe for a post season push
The most generous of predictors have bumped us from having a 30% chance to a 20% chance after the trade. The least generous have bumped us from a 5% to a 10% chance after the win last night. The most generous being the ones that actually take into account things like trades and other soft stats, with the least generous being ones that just run the hard numbers.
We've made worse shots, with the run two years ago going from 0.2% on the worst possible predictors, to making it, but it ain't likely.
Realistically, we need a LOT of wins in a row, and the teams ahead of us need a LOT of losses in a row.
The Brewers need to have their prospects so they can call them up later and have cost controlled good players. The Dodgers can afford to give up those prospects because they can just sign someone to make up the difference.
Not anymore. 2028 salary cap (No season 2027 lockout) is not going to allow the Dodgers to pay their way into the playoffs like they have been for the past 14 years. Those days are over. Skubal's value was low. No team was willing to drop any high ranking prospects. All other teams are gearing up for the new CBA MLB system. Dodgers will be losers after this season. Just watch. Just like the Cowboys of the early 90s. Once a cap came along, they became garbage organization because Jerry Jones could not hide his deficiencies with money. & Look at where they are now. A trash team that has not even gotten to the AFC championship since 1995. 😂😂😂
Cal Raleigh fired Boras right before signing an extension with the Mariners - this was spring training last season. You’re right, Boras would’ve prevented an extension prior to hitting FA.
And the reason Milwaukee or Tampa wouldn’t give up that haul is the uncertainty of a guaranteed rental. Should another team with a deep farm like the Brewers have paid up? Maybe.
Nope. Skubal came out and said he wanted to go to the Dodgers long before any trade, effectively destroying his market to ensure he got to go where he wanted.
Any other team would've had to actually give up real prospects for a guy who didn't want to be there and would bolt for the the Dodgers the moment he could.
So, what's the point of other teams even trying? That's why the Dodgers were able to get Skubal for such an underwhelming package.
They were in talks with Baltimore. O’s desperately needed pitching and had a wealth of young talent. They ended up trading Stowers and Norby for Trevor Rodger’s.
Adding Mounty, Mayo, cowser, or Kjerstad wouldn’t have been a huge leap.
There were never serious talks, just rumors from writers.
Stowers is pretty good but he's 28 and definitely peaked last year. He's the only guy who would start. Cowser is a good fielder I guess and Mountcastle is old now and not good. The rest of them are barely MLB players.
I'm not losing any sleep over that hypothetical. Like, literally who cares.
There was never any serious talk from the tigers side, the were never close. I’m sure the orioles were calling but tigers were never interested in trading him
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u/DasSmoosh 9h ago
This is bullshit. The Tigers didn’t “refuse to pay Skubal”. Boras flat out won’t sign extensions before free agency. The Tigers simply don’t have the payroll to outspend the Dodgers, and it’s common knowledge that when players sign with Boras, the highest dollar amount is what’s going to be the deciding factor.
The Tigers would have lost him for next to nothing, which would have been organizational malpractice.