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LAS VEGAS — The New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres are among six teams set to meet with free-agent left-hander Tarik Skubal, with Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement scheduled to expire Dec. 1.
A person familiar with the negotiations disclosed the planned meetings to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they had not been announced. The person did not identify the other three teams.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported Tuesday that the Mets will meet with Skubal next week in California. Skubal, who is represented by Scott Boras, turns 30 on Nov. 20.
The labor deal expires at 10:59 p.m. CT on Dec. 1, and management is expected to lock out the players immediately. It would be the sport’s tenth work stoppage since 1972. Trades and signings would be frozen, as they were during the 99-day lockout in 2021-22.
Front-office executives met with reporters Tuesday at the annual general managers meetings in Las Vegas, which run through Thursday.
“From my perspective, I look at this as a business-as-usual offseason until they tell us otherwise,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “So we’re going through this as though we’re going to have a full, complete offseason, and I think that’s the best way to operate.”
Tarik Skubal Split 2026 Between Detroit And Los Angeles
Skubal went 12-7 with a 2.72 ERA in 26 starts this season for the Detroit Tigers and the Dodgers. Los Angeles acquired the two-time American League Cy Young Award winner on Aug. 2 for three prospects.
After the trade, Skubal posted a 2.61 ERA in 10 starts for the Dodgers and a 2.45 ERA in two postseason starts. The Milwaukee Brewers swept Los Angeles in the National League Championship Series.
Skubal could surpass the largest contract ever given to a pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers that began in 2024. Los Angeles slotted Skubal into a rotation with Yamamoto and Blake Snell after the trade.
Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes spoke at the meetings Tuesday. Skubal declined to discuss free agency after the Dodgers’ season ended in the NLCS.
“We’ve been in touch with his camp, and our expectation is we’ll meet at some point,” Gomes said.
Skubal heads a free-agent class that also includes right-hander Michael King.
Proposed Salary Cap Hangs Over MLB Free Agency
MLB has proposed a hard salary cap of $258.2 million for 2028 and a floor of $180.2 million, based on luxury tax payrolls that use average annual values. A team could fall as low as 90% of the floor in 2028, or $162.18 million, but would have to spend the full floor amount over a three-year period.
According to MLB, eight teams would need to cut a combined $528 million from current payrolls to get under the proposed 2028 cap. That group includes the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Dodgers, New York Yankees, Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Padres, and Toronto Blue Jays.
Players have vowed never to accept a cap. They struck for 7 1/2 months in 1994 and 1995, a stoppage that led to the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years.
On the day before the last lockout began in 2021, teams announced 27 contracts worth more than $1.4 billion combined. Padres president of baseball operations and general manager A.J. Preller met with reporters Tuesday.
“In terms of our process of evaluating players, valuing players, talking to agents and individual players, we’ve been kind of doing what we do every offseason and put ourselves in position to make decisions,” Preller said.
“The possibility of having a different economic system, you take that into consideration,” Preller said, “but it’s really hard to predict what’s going to happen, what the exact system is going to be, so I think ultimately if we see something that we think makes sense for us both in the short and long term, then I think we’re going to be prepared to act on it.”
The Yankees are also above the proposed cap. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman spoke at the meetings Tuesday as well.
“I’m approaching business as usual here until told otherwise,” Cashman said. “I’ve been given a budget by Hal [Steinbrenner] and we’re trying to now connect with teams and agents as the winter has just started to see what is feasible and what isn’t feasible and try to game plan off of that information that we’re gathering now.”
The general managers meetings conclude Thursday in Las Vegas.
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