Major League Baseball’s arbitration system is like nothing else in professional sports. While every major American sport has tenuous contract situations, they all pale in comparison to MLB's system, which requires players and teams to submit contract figures to try to figure out salaries amongst themselves.
And if the two sides aren’t able to come to an agreement then they go to an arbitration hearing where both sides stake their case for why they believe their salary figure is correct. In most cases, the two sides are fighting over a million dollars or two.
And then there’s the case of the Tigers and Tarik Skubal.