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Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, arguably the foremost name discussed amid a fast-approaching MLB trade deadline, wants to stay in Detroit, potentially throwing the entire trade market into further turbulence.
Skubal, the two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner, made a passionate plea to remain a Tiger as the Aug. 3 trade deadline nears.
“I’ve never been more motivated to try to win a World Series for this city, the team drafted me in 2018 and helped develop me,” Skubal told reporters on Thursday. “That’s always been the goal, and that will never change unless I’m told I’m on a different team.”
Decision Factors
The Tigers face a particularly momentous decision at the trade deadline. Skubal will enter free agency after the season and could reap the largest contract for a pitcher in MLB history, even after undergoing elbow surgery earlier this year. A Skubal deal potentially exceeding $325 million, the record for a free-agent pitcher set by Yoshinobu Yamamoto in late 2023, is something Detroit could have reluctance absorbing—particularly since the franchise lost its traditional local media rights deal with the defunct Main Street Sports Group before the season.
It’s also unknown what, if any, draft pick compensation Detroit would get if Skubal leaves in free agency given the fractious state of labor negotiations between MLB and the MLB Players Association and uncertainty around what will become of the league’s qualifying offer system.
As all that has unfolded, the franchise has not been definitive about its long-term intentions for Skubal. In the meantime, several contending teams are likely to offer hefty trade packages in the coming days, even to have Skubal for two months and the postseason. Detroit is four games out of a playoff spot entering Friday’s game, having followed an ugly 22–38 start with a 27–16 run.
Further complicating the situation is the relationship between the Tigers’ front office and Skubal, which the pitcher acknowledges has changed since he won a record-setting, $32 million arbitration battle in February.
“Of course, when you take a player to arbitration, there’s not a ton of positive things that come out of that process, relationship-wise,” Skubal said. “That’s pretty obvious. But my relationship with the coaching staff and the players and my teammates, it’s the same as it always is.”
In the meantime, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch has faced steady questions about Skubal.
“My consecutive streak is alive of having to answer a Tarik Skubal question every day for, like, three months,” Hinch said.
Skubal will start for the Tigers on Friday against the Royals in what could be his final appearance for Detroit at Comerica Park.
“That might be the reality,” he said. “But also five days later, there’s another one at home.”
