Speaking with the media Wednesday for the first time since he reportedly objected to raising MLB's luxury tax threshold during negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement with the players association, Tigers owner Chris Ilitch defended his willingness to invest money in the club, dismissed the report as "noise" and said "the evidence is very clear as to how I voted and what I voted for."
Ilitch was originally one of four MLB owners who voted against raising the competitive balance tax from $210 million to $220 million, according to The Athletic, but later approved raising it to $230 million (with further raises in the years to come) as part of the new CBA between the owners and players.
"I’d like to take a moment and address that topic and really set the record straight," Ilitch told reporters at the Tigers spring training complex. "As we all know, all 30 Major League owners voted 30 to 0 to ratify the collective bargaining agreement. And when we ratified that agreement, I think it became very evident that this is an agreement that has an increase in salary for pre-arbitration players, it has a bonus pool that was added for some of our brightest young players and importantly, it has an increase in the collective bargaining tax threshold.
"So the evidence is very clear as to how I voted and what I voted for. Any other controversy around that subject is really just noise that was created within a very competitive environment, a tough negotiation, and teams creating noise for their own gain and their own advantage."
Ilitch, who has come under fire within the Tigers fanbase for not spending to the same degree as his late father and former owner Mike Ilitch, then pointed out that the Tigers stuck to their word this offseason and invested heavily in their roster. They gave $140 million to shortstop Javier Baez, tied for the fifth biggest free agent deal of the offseason, and $77 million to starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez as part of a spending spree that totaled $243 million.
"The only other thing I would say is, when you look at what Al (Avila) and his team and our organization have done this offseason, we’ve addressed a lot of needs. We have gone out and done exactly what we said we would do, which is to fill in our needs in free agency. When you look at what we’ve added, our club added as much payroll as any club in baseball over the course of this offseason."
That last part isn't entirely true. The Rangers, Dodgers and Mets all spent more than the Tigers this offseason, with Texas blowing everyone out of the water by sinking $500 million into Cory Seager and Marcus Semien alone. The Dodgers racked up a $270 million tab headlined by Freddie Freeman and the Mets sunk $255 million into a group of stars led by Max Scherzer.
Still, the Tigers just spent more money in free agency than they did in all but one offseason (2015-16) under Mike Ilitch. They won't be anywhere near the luxury tax this season -- Mike Ilitch frequently flirted with (or exceeded) it -- and at least four teams are set to incur it, but Ilitch says he's spoken loud and clear with his checkbook, alternative reports be damned.
"When you add it all up, it’s pretty clear where I stand on this issue and my record is very clear in terms of how I voted and what I voted for," he said. "So you guys (the media) have to sort through, in a competitive environment, what others put out there and why they put it out there to create noise for their own competitive gain, and I’ll leave it at that."