Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal had a simple message for his new teammate Framber Valdez.
“Dinners on you” Skubal said in a post on his Instagram story shortly after the Valdez signing went public.
The Tigers made a stunning move on Wednesday, Feb. 4, signing Valdez, a former Astro and two-time All-Star, to a three-year deal worth $115 million.
Valdez immediately becomes a cornerstone of the Tigers’ rotation, but that’s not where most people’s heads went after the news broke.
Before the Valdez signing, the news of the day was Skubal’s arbitration meeting with the Tigers, where the two sides were notably $13 million apart, an arbitration record.
But quickly after the deal got done, questions about how it impacts Skubal started to dominate the narrative:
Does this move set up a Skubal trade?
Does this mean the Tigers think they’ll win their arbitration fight with Skubal and have more money to spend now?
Does this mean the Tigers are going all-in while they’ve got Skubal?
For now, it’s too early to say, but at the very least we know Skubal is looking forward to some dinners at Valdez’s expense.
Andrew Birkle is an assistant sports editor for the Free Press. Contact him via email at abirkle@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tarik Skubal’s message to Framber Valdez after signing with Tigers
Reporting by Andrew Birkle, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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