Detroit Tigers Cy Young Winner Signs New Endorsement Deal With Top Brand
The Detroit Tigers have one of the best pitchers in baseball, and he just signed a new endorsement deal with a top brand that is not normally known for baseball gear.
Per Even Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, Tarik Skubal signed a new endorsement deal with Nike.
Skubal signed this deal in January, but it has remained under the radar. The length and compensation of the agreement with Nike are still unknown.
The left-handed pitcher is coming off a Cy Young season in which he won the American League pitching triple crown. He was 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA in 192 innings pitched. Along with that, he struck out 228 batters, walked just 35 and finished with a 6.3 WAR.
The endorsement deal was negotiated by Skubal's agent Scott Boras, and it manifested in a simple way.
"My agent said, 'Do you want to sign with Nike?' I said, 'Yeah,' and that was the extent of it," Skubal said while speaking with Petzold.
With that, the 28-year-old joined a short list of players with Nike glove contracts. This list includes two of his teammates, as well.
Top prospect Jackson Jobe and Matt Manning are the two teammates. The other pitchers include Corbin Burnes, Lance McCullers Jr, Garrett Crochet, Walker Buehler and Spencer Strider. Skubal is clearly joining some talented pitchers by signing this deal.
The Tigers ace was not looking to leave his previous deal with Rawlings, but he does not see this as anything other than more money in his pocket.
"It's just a paid opportunity, so you take it," the former ninth-round pick told Petzold.
As for this season, Skubal is expected to have another fantastic year. His FanGraph projections have him finishing with a 2.92 ERA in addition to the third-highest pitching WAR behind Paul Skenes and Jacob deGrom. He is also predicted to throw the fourth-most innings in the MLB while winning the second-most games.
If the Seattle University product can live up to those projections, he is going to become the 12th pitcher in MLB history to win back-to-back Cy Young awards.
Looking forward, Skubal is still in his arbitration years. He will become a free agent in 2027, but Detroit might want to lock him up sooner than that. If he hits the market, the Tigers may not be able to out-bid some of the teams willing to break their banks (e.g Los Angles Dodgers and New York Mets).
For now, the lefty will be enjoying his new deal with Nike.
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Cameron Zunkel is a sports writer from the western suburbs of Chicago. He played Division-II baseball at the University of Illinois at Springfield where he earned a masters degree in Communication. Cameron also played independent league baseball for the Joliet Slammers and Schaumburg Boomers of the Frontier League. He has been in journalism for the better part of two years now, and has a passion for baseball specifically. His other work includes writing sports betting articles for ClutchPoints. In his free time, you can catch Cam at the gym, on the golf course, or coaching the youth in the beautiful sport of baseball.