It’s the Saturday earlier than the Tremendous Bowl, which suggests it’s the final Saturday earlier than the unofficial begin of baseball season! Effectively, except you subscribe to Davy Andrews’ philosophy that the baseball season begins when the primary grainy cellphone footage of pitchers at their crew’s spring coaching facility hits social media.
This has been an eventful week for the Tigers, who signed Framber Valdez to a three-year, $115 million contract on Wednesday night time after which on Thursday had been ordered by an arbitrator to pay two-time Cy Younger winner Tarik Skubal a $32 million wage for the 2026 season, his remaining 12 months beneath membership management. That’s some huge cash for Detroit to dole out, however for that worth, the Tigers have maybe one of the best 1-2 rotation combo within the American League. For one 12 months, I’d say that’s greater than value it. Michael Baumann broke down all of the implications of the Skubal determination on Thursday afternoon.
That’s the final we’ll be speaking about Skubal and Valdez in the present day. As an alternative, we’ll be answering your questions concerning the all-time non-Corridor of Famers groups, minor league payrolls, and which gamers we’d need to see pull a Philip Rivers. Earlier than we do, I’d wish to remind you that this mailbag is unique to FanGraphs Members. In case you aren’t but a Member and wish to maintain studying, you possibly can join a Membership right here. It’s one of the simplest ways to each expertise the positioning and assist our employees, and it comes with a bunch of different nice advantages. Additionally, for those who’d wish to ask a query for an upcoming mailbag, ship me an electronic mail at mailbag@fangraphs.com.