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
