The Detroit Tigers are not officially shopping Tarik Skubal. They are taking calls, and the market has noticed.
ESPN ranked the reigning Cy Young winner as the top trade deadline candidate in baseball this week, calling him “the dream deadline candidate” and the kind of ace that can carry a contender through October. The Tigers are more likely than not to move him before the deadline if the right offer comes.
That is a brutal headline if you live in Detroit. Skubal is the best pitcher the Tigers have developed in years. He is also a year and a half from free agency, and the Tigers are still not realistically contending despite the modest progress under manager A.J. Hinch.
Who Actually Wins This Bidding War
The Dodgers are the obvious favorite. Los Angeles has a deep farm system, a starting rotation that has been hit hard by injuries, and the financial flexibility to extend Skubal as soon as the trade clears. Adding him to a rotation with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani makes the Dodgers the favorite to win every series they play.
The Yankees are the bidder nobody can dismiss. Brian Cashman has been the most aggressive deadline buyer in the game for two decades. The Yankees have the prospect capital to win the bidding if they decide they want to. Whether that fits with the larger plan to extend Aaron Judge and shore up the bullpen is the open question.
The Braves, Brewers, and Blue Jays are also legitimate contenders for him. Each has a strong farm system. Each has a rotation that could use one more frontline arm. Atlanta would be the most fascinating fit, given the way the Braves manage their pitching staff and the obvious upgrade Skubal would represent.
The Rays are the wild card. Tampa never quite has the money to outbid anyone, but they always seem to find a way to land the right piece anyway. If Skubal is on the move, the Rays are going to push hard to get him into a rotation that already has the best pitching infrastructure in baseball.
Detroit’s leverage is real. Skubal is under control through 2027. That is not a rental. Any team that wants him has to pay a premium based on that timeline. The Tigers are reportedly looking for an MLB-ready bat, a high-end pitching prospect, and at least one other lottery-ticket prospect in any deal.
That is a steep ask. It is also the only ask that makes sense. The Tigers are not going to do the Justin Verlander trade or the Max Scherzer trade where the return was talented but limited. Skubal is younger than either of those pitchers when they were dealt and arguably better than both at the same age.
The Skubal camp has reportedly not signed off on an extension with Detroit. That is the part the Tigers cannot fix. If the player will not lock in long term, the team has to choose between trading him now or losing him for a compensation pick later.
The deadline is August 3 at 6 p.m. ET. The Tigers have six weeks to decide. Every contender in baseball is going to spend that time trying to figure out what it takes to get Skubal in the playoff rotation. He is the deadline. Everything else is a footnote until he moves.
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.
