Detroit, MI
Detroit Tigers avoid arbitration with all nine eligible players for $26.76 million in 2025
Tarik Skubal on track for ‘recording-setting contract’ in free agency
USA TODAY Sports MLB columnist and insider Bob Nightengale breaks down the hefty pay day Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal could demand in free agency.
The Detroit Tigers agreed to terms with all nine of their arbitration eligible players.
Their salaries are locked in for the 2025 season.
Seven players signed one-year contracts before MLB’s deadline Thursday to avoid arbitration: left-hander Tarik Skubal, right-handed reliever Jason Foley, outfielder Matt Vierling, catcher Jake Rogers, right-hander Casey Mize, right-handed reliever Will Vest and right-handed reliever Beau Brieske.
The Tigers already agreed to terms in late November with two additional arbitration eligible players: infielder/outfielder Zach McKinstry at $1.65 million and infielder Andy Ibáñez at $1.4 million.
Teams and arbitration-eligible players were required agree to salary figures by 1 p.m. Thursday. For those who didn’t reach an agreement, there was another deadline at 8 p.m. Thursday to exchange salary figures in preparation for an arbitration hearing to be scheduled within the next month. During the hearing, a panel of arbitrators selects either the team’s proposed salary or the player’s proposed salary.
The Tigers, under president of baseball operations Scott Harris, operate as a “file-and-trial” club, which means there would have been no further negotiations on one-year contracts after Thursday’s salary-exchange deadline.
However, the Tigers and their players will avoid arbitration hearings altogether in 2025, as all parties agreed to terms, extending the Tigers’ streak without an arbitration hearing to six years.
The most notable news from Thursday’s deadline: Skubal — the 2024 American League Cy Young winner who previously turned down a contract extension offer — settled with the Tigers at a $10.15 million salary for 2025, earning a $7.5 million raise from his $2.65 million salary in 2024.
Skubal, 28, will be eligible for salary arbitration for the third and final time after the 2025 season. He is scheduled to become a free agent after the 2026 season.
Aside from Skubal’s raise, Rogers settled at $2.64 million — up from $1.7 million last year — in his second year of arbitration and Mize settled at $2.34 million — up from $830,000 last season — in his second year of arbitration. Both Rogers and Mize, like Skubal, are set to reach free agency after the 2026 campaign.
The other six eligible players are in their first year of salary arbitration: Foley at $3.15 million, Vierling at $3.005 million, McKinstry at $1.65 million, Vest at $1.4 million, Ibáñez at $1.4 million and Brieske at $1.025 million.
Players must have at least three years of service time — or qualify for Super Two status — to be eligible for salary arbitration, then players become free agents after six years of service time. Therefore, most players are arbitration-eligible for a total of three years, but a Super Two qualifier — such as Ibáñez and Brieske — receives four years of arbitration eligibility.
In 2025, the Tigers will pay $26.76 million to nine arbitration-eligible players.
Here’s the full breakdown, listed in order of salary: Skubal ($10.15 million), Foley ($3.15 million), Vierling ($3.005 million), Rogers ($2.64 million), Mize ($2.34 million), McKinstry ($1.65 million), Vest ($1.4 million), Ibáñez ($1.4 million), Brieske ($1.025 million).
The Tigers are also on the hook for another $68.5 million to five players on free agent or longterm deals: SS Javier Báez ($25 million), RHP Alex Cobb ($15 million), 2B Gleyber Torres ($15 million), RHP Kenta Maeda ($10 million) and 1B Colt Keith ($3.5 million). The remainder of the Tigers’ 26-man roster, including players such as DH Kerry Carpenter and RHP Reese Olson, will make the league-minimum salary, set for $760,000 in 2025.
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For now, Skubal is the fourth-highest paid player on the Tigers’ roster in 2025, trailing only Báez, Cobb and Torres. Keith, who signed a contract extension before his MLB debut, checks in at sixth on the leaderboard.
Skubal made the All-Star Game for the first time in his five-year MLB career en route to winning the Cy Young in 2024, posting an 18-4 record with a 2.39 ERA, 35 walks and 228 strikeouts across 192 innings in 31 starts. He led the AL in wins, ERA and strikeouts to secure the first AL pitching Triple Crown in a full season since 2011.
When next offseason rolls around, Skubal is all but guaranteed to surpass $15 million (and could reach $20 million) for his 2026 salary in his third and final trip through the arbitration process before free agency.
The Tigers haven’t had an arbitration hearing with a player since Michael Fulmer in 2019, with Fulmer losing to the Tigers. Before Fulmer’s case, there hadn’t been an arbitration hearing involving the Tigers since 2001.
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Detroit, MI
Retired Detroit sergeant faces new sexual assault charge involving 14-year-old victim from 2002
An additional case, this one involving a victim who was then 14 years old, has been added to the sexual assault investigation against a former Detroit Police Department sergeant.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced the latest charges on Friday against Benjamin Martin Wagner, 68, who now lives in Greenville, N.C. He had retired from the Detroit Police Department in 2017.
The victim in the additional charges was 14 years old when the assault happened in October 2002 in Detroit, Worthy said. The prosecutor alleges that Wagner approached the victim, pointed a handgun at her, ordered her away from the location and then sexually assaulted her.
In this case, he faces charges of kidnapping, two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. An arraignment hearing took place Friday in the 36th District Court in Detroit. A probable cause conference is scheduled for April 7.
The woman is now 37 years old.
“She has lived with what happened to her for 23 years and has now bravely decided that she wants to be a part of holding him accountable,” Worthy said.
Wagner participated in a court hearing Thursday and was remanded to jail, one week after he was charged with 15 counts of kidnapping and rape in five separate sexual assault cases. All of those incidents happened between 1999 and 2003 in the northwest side of Detroit, with the victims being young women between the ages of 15 and 23.
The court dates for the earlier list of charges are April 7 for a probable cause hearing and April 14 for a preliminary exam.
Wagner joined the Detroit Police Department in 1989 as a police officer and was eventually promoted to sergeant. He retired in 2017 and moved to North Carolina.
Detroit, MI
Metro Detroit weather forecast, March 26, 2026 — 11 p.m. Update
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Detroit, MI
Fangirl Culture is Front and Center as Detroit Mercy Theatre Company Presents a Zany Y2K Comedy
I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire closes Detroit Mercy’s 55th Season
DETROIT — Detroit Mercy Theatre Company (DMTC) closes the inaugural season of the new Detroit
Mercy Black Box Theatre with I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire by Samantha Hurley, playing April 10-19 on University of Detroit Mercy’s McNichols Campus.
I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire is set in 2004 and follows 14-year-old Shelby Hinkley, who is obsessed with Hollywood star Tobey Maguire and creates a play to kidnap and marry him in her basement.
“This play is as hilarious as it is heartfelt,” said DMTC managing director Sarah Rusk. “Shelby truly believes Tobey Maguire is her destiny, and through her obsession we get a look into the complicated emotions of growing up during the Y2K era.”
“I absolutely love working with young actors,” said director Cassandra Svacha.
“Watching them create and rise to the challenge is thrilling. I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire to college-aged kids is like a period piece; none of them were alive when this story takes place so it’s extra fun to have them dive into this world in an anthropologic way. They aren’t reminiscing or remembering 2004, they have to study that world and build it for themselves.”
I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire runs six performances April 10-19 at the new Detroit Mercy Black Box Theatre on University of Detroit Mercy’s McNichols Campus. The DMTC Ticket Office is open Tuesday-Thursday 10 a.m.- 2 p.m., with tickets being available for purchase anytime online at www.DetroitMercyArts.com.
Individual tickets are $25 for adults, $18 for seniors and Detroit Mercy faculty, staff and alumni, and $10 for veterans and students (ages 4-college). Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. To schedule your group, contact Sarah Rusk at 313-993-3273.
Those looking to buy tickets should note that the play is rated R and contains adult language and
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