Tigers owner Christopher Ilitch recently spoke to members of the media, including Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, about various subjects related to the team. Fans are encouraged to check out the full interview to get all the details. This post will focus in on the quotes related to the club’s payroll and the competitive balance tax.
Detroit just wrapped up a fairly aggressive offseason, which involved a couple of late signings, as they landed Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander in February. Verlander’s deal was fairly modest, with $11MM of the $13MM guarantee being deferred into next decade. The Valdez deal also had some deferrals in it but was still quite a commitment, with a sticker price of $115MM over three years.
“It’s really to win, and it’s to give back,” Ilitch said of adding those notable deals to the payroll. “What we’re doing in Detroit and Michigan — it’s for fans, really, at the end of the day. I’m really motivated to build a winning, championship-caliber organization for Tigers fans.”
The Tigers are poised to set a new high water mark in terms of payroll, as seen in the data at Cot’s Baseball Contracts. Back in 2016 and 2017, the payroll was just under $200MM. That was when Christopher’s father Michael was still running the club. Michael passed away in February of 2017, which is when Christopher inherited the throne.
That 2017 season turned into a big bust for the Tigers. They sold off veteran players that summer, sending J.D. Martinez, Justin Upton and Verlander out of town. They then entered a lengthy rebuilding period with payrolls way down from that 2016-17 peak. The Tigers finally returned to contention more recently, making the playoffs in both 2024 and 2025.
Despite opening that new competitive window, the club has stayed somewhat conservative, at least until recently. They mostly signed free agents to one-year deals going into the 2025 season. The lone exception was a two-year deal for Jack Flaherty, and even that had an opt-out halfway through. Their 2025 trade deadline was also relatively timid; they mostly picked up complementary depth pieces, as opposed to true difference-makers.
Even the 2025-26 season seemed like it was going to be more of the same until the Valdez and Verlander deals pushed them to a new level. Cot’s projects them for $206MM in terms of pure payroll. The calculations of RosterResource are even higher, with a projected payroll of $217MM. Either would be a new franchise record.
The spending has also pushed the club near the $244MM base threshold of the competitive balance tax. Cot’s projects them at $241MM with RosterResource higher by about half a million. Ilitch was asked if he is willing to push the club over the line.
“Scott and I talked about that,” Ilitch said, referring to president of baseball operations Scott Harris. “I think the most important thing to me and to him is to ensure that we give our organization, our team and our players the best chance for success. So, based on the team that we have, I leave it to Scott to decide if he wants to add. And if he does, that’s really not an issue.”
While that’s not a firm declaration that the club is willing to pay the tax, Ilitch didn’t close the door on the possibility either. That’s likely encouraging for fans of the club, as it would be difficult for the Tigers to make in-season additions otherwise. Since they are already so close to the tax line, Harris would have almost no wiggle room for deadline deals if there was a strong club policy against paying the tax.
The Tigers have a strong chance to make some noise in 2026. They have Tarik Skubal under club control for one more year. He’s obviously won the American League Cy Young Award in each of the past two seasons, and coupling him with Valdez is a major boon, particularly if they go on a deep run in the postseason, when teams usually lean harder on their top arms. It’s possible Skubal will sign with another club next offseason, leaving the 2026 season as the Tigers’ final chance to take advantage of having him on the roster.
While every club has a payroll limit, it would be frustrating if the tax was some kind of uncrossable barrier this year, so perhaps it could be a cause for some optimism that paying the tax seems to be a possibility. The Tigers last paid the CBT in 2017.
Photo courtesy of Junfu Han, Imagn Images
where will skubal sign next yr and for how much?
yankees, mets, dodgers?
10years?
$360mil? 400?
No matter how much a team like Detroit spends, “This one belongs to the Reds” is going to don his imaginary cape to fight his good fight and blame big-market teams…
@Steinbrenner2728 (2.0)
Big market teams are ruining baseball.
Don’t really give the team the best chance. Signing a middle of the order hitter would have done that. Now they’re left with a poor offense and good pitching staff. He has a payroll ceiling and went pitching only. Just be up front about it.
This. Expect some regression from Riley Greene and possibly Torkelson. They need Keith, Meadows and Perez to step up and have big years if they are going to really contend
Why would you expect regression from Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson? Tork hit .240 with .789 OPS and 117 OPS+. Greene hit .258, .810 OPS and 120 OPS+. And they spent most of the year at age 25 and 24, respectively. They should be expected to improve on their 2025 numbers at those ages, not regress.
There’s really wasn’t any middle of the order hitter I would have wanted to see them sign, for the years that they got, that would have been a fit. After being used by Bregman last year, they weren’t going there.
Terrible Skrupals is gone based on who he hired as an agent. In it for the money, he will wind of with a huge contract with some big spending franchise. But that’s just Bayes ball: What is the probability a player leaves his team given that he has Boras for an agent? Conditional probability. And so it goes.
wh
“In it for the money,”
What else should they be “in it” for?
I don’t know, winning?
Derek Jeter never maximized his income and he seems perfectly happy.
Jason Varitek never maximized his income and he seems perfectly happy.
I don’t know. Those two guys were ballplayers first, and great in completely different ways. But not in it for the money.
That’s an awkward looking picture accompanying this post. Are they in the follow-thru after giving each other a High-5 or something? High-fivin’ white guys.
Six two and even Skubal ends up with the Dodgers…
Glad to see they are trying to win . Let’s hope the players agree to a salary cap so we will have baseball after this year . Greed is sinful
Some players are in it for the legacy, and the chance to win with the team that believed in them. Unfortunately, I see Skubal as a Dodger next year. They have no restrictions on signing pitchers long term (unlike the Mets). Other than those two, who else would pay his price. Not NYY. Not Boston. Maybe Toronto?
If Illich is willing to spend, Harris needs to go all in at the deadline if they are anywhere in the playoff hunt. Tigers should’ve signed some pitchers that were younger and more guarantees like Gallen instead of ones pushing 40 and over 40. Also should’ve tried to get a decent 3b like Suarez. Last, just extend Skubal and give this group a shot to compete for the next 5 years. They had a real shot in 2025, and holding onto McGonigle, Clark, etc, didn’t do anything for them unless those guys are going to be better than the core group now or are traded for someone decent in July. Hope something they need will be available. Go Tigers!