Every summer, Tarik Skubal is the biggest trade name in baseball. Every summer, the Detroit Tigers say the same thing. He is not going anywhere. This summer, for the first time, that answer might actually be true.
Detroit is 22-14 since the start of June. That is a 99-win pace. Rival executives who spoke to reporters this week said flatly that they do not expect the Tigers to move Skubal, because moving him would signal a rebuild the Tigers no longer believe they need.
The teams still calling include Tampa Bay, which USA Today reported “plans to be aggressive buyers” with Skubal as the primary target. The Cubs, Dodgers, Braves, and Rays are all in various stages of preparing offers. The Phillies have been mentioned. So have the Yankees, though that is more speculation than legitimate reporting.
The problem for buyers is that Detroit’s asking price is astronomical, and reasonably so. Skubal is a two-time Cy Young winner who is under team control through 2026. Trading him for anything less than a top-three prospect package plus major-league help is not going to make sense.
Tampa Bay would have to give up players like Junior Caminero. The Dodgers would need to include a Roki Sasaki-level piece. The Cubs would probably need to move Owen Caissie and Matt Shaw at minimum. Nobody is going to do that unless they are absolutely certain Skubal signs long-term.
That is the other complication. Skubal is a Scott Boras client, and Boras clients almost never sign extensions before free agency. That means the team acquiring Skubal is essentially paying a top-three prospect package for a season and a half of a starter who will then hit the open market.
Detroit does not have that concern. They can either extend Skubal themselves or let him walk and take the draft pick. Either outcome is fine. Trading him for prospects only makes sense if the Tigers themselves are giving up on this window, and they clearly are not.
The Tigers front office has done an underrated job of building this roster. Riley Greene has emerged as a legitimate star. Colt Keith is producing. Jack Flaherty is having a good year. Kerry Carpenter is back. This is not a fluke. This is a team that has been steadily good for two years and is finally getting the results to match.
Selling Skubal would send exactly the wrong message. It would tell fans and players that even when the team is winning, the front office does not believe in it. That is a poison pill for any young roster.
The right call is to hold him, run the table over the next two months, and either sign him to a long-term extension or accept the compensatory pick when he leaves. The Tigers have earned the right to make that decision on their own terms.
Every deadline, the Skubal noise gets loud. Every deadline, the answer is the same. This deadline, it might finally be the right answer.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
