The closer Tarik Skubal gets to free agency, the further he's wedged between the two realities of big-league baseball: the game and the business.
"Listen, winning is where my focus is at," Skubal said over the weekend, via The Detroit News. "There’s been some comments made that are interesting. Not from me. But I’m going to be focused about winning and doing what I can do. And as an organization, that’s where the focus should be, too."
Skubal is a year and a half away from hitting the open market as he guns for his second straight Cy Young Award. The cost of keeping him continues to rise. Skubal, who's represented by super agent Scott Boras, and the Tigers have apparently made little progress on an extension.
His general reticence on the topic "doesn’t mean I don’t want to be here or that I’m against any extension," Skubal said. "It doesn’t mean any of that. I just don’t want to talk about it. I’m very happy playing here. I like our coaching staff, I like our team. But there is a business side of the game that is much different than the playing side."
Skubal, who turns 29 in November, would like to pitch in Detroit for the duration of his career. Scott Harris and the Tigers would love to lock him up. But Harris raised some eyebrows during a recent appearance on The Show podcast when he said, "We can't just decide we're going to sign him. It takes two parties and some understanding of the parameters of a deal, and it takes a willingness on both sides to actually do it."
Harris said later on 97.1 The Ticket, "Sometimes it sounds a lot easier to just lock him up and sign extensions and just get it done because you feel like it. It’s a lot harder than that."
Skubal will command a salary of at least $40 million per year on his next deal. A 10-year, $400 million ask isn't out of the question, especially if he's signing an extension with Detroit and foregoing free agency -- something that Boras rarely lets his clients do.
"I just don’t think it does any good to come out and say anything about what’s going on," said Skubal, who's slated to be a free agent after next season. "If something changes, I might comment on it. But it doesn’t do any good so I’m going to keep it to myself, to my agent and to the front office."
He reiterated: "It has nothing to do with me not wanting to be here. I hope that’s clear. But there is a business side of this game that's not as beautiful as the baseball side of this game. That’s just what it is."
Asked if the Tigers have encountered any resistance from Skubal's camp on a potential extension, Harris said on 97.1 The Ticket, "Listen, I’m just not going to talk about it. I totally understand the question, it’s a fair question, it’s just really not fair in this case to Tarik or his representation to talk about any sort of resistance or offers and counters."
"It’s both not fair to them and it’s not going to help us reach a deal," Harris said.