Tarik Skubal is going to be traded. The Detroit Tigers have to make the move, and the deal is going to be the centerpiece of the entire 2026 MLB trade deadline.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported this week that the Tigers ace will be traded before the deadline. ESPN’s Jeff Passan called the upcoming deadline “The Skubal Deadline” in his early preview. The reporting has been consistent for weeks. Detroit is selling, and Skubal is the asset that brings back a haul.
The Tigers are 22-37. They are in last place in the AL Central, 11.5 games behind the Cleveland Guardians. They are not coming back. They are also not going to compete in 2027 with Skubal as a free agent at the end of this season.
The math forces the move.
Skubal is the two-time defending Cy Young Award winner. He is one of the three best starting pitchers in baseball. He has been working his way back from NanoScope elbow surgery and is on track to return in mid-June, which gives him about six weeks of work to prove he is fully healthy before the deadline.
That timeline matters. Trade partners need to see Skubal pitch. A team is not surrendering top prospects for a pitcher who has not made a real start in two months without verification. The Tigers know it. Skubal’s reps know it. The plan is to ramp him up, get him three or four high-quality starts, then sell.
Scott Boras represents Skubal. The Tigers are not getting an extension done. The asking price is going to be massive. Boras famously waits out the market, and Detroit is not going to commit to the kind of long-term deal that locks them into a financial hole during their rebuild. The trade is the only way to recover value.
The landing spots are obvious. The Braves are at the top of the list. Atlanta’s rotation has been depleted, and Alex Anthopoulos has the prospect capital to win any bidding war. The Dodgers are another logical match. Los Angeles has lost Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell to the 60-day IL, and a Skubal acquisition would set up a rotation built around Yamamoto, Ohtani, and Skubal in October.
The Yankees are interested. Brian Cashman always shows up at the deadline for the biggest names, and the loss of Aaron Judge to a rib stress fracture changes the entire team’s calculation. New York is not going to win a World Series with their current pitching staff.
The Brewers, Cubs, Padres, and Blue Jays have all been mentioned. Toronto in particular has the prospect base and the desperation to make an aggressive offer. The Jays are in a win-now window with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, both of whom have approached free agency. A Skubal addition would be the kind of all-in move that defines an organization.
The price is going to be at least three top-100 prospects. The Tigers are going to want a major league-ready piece in the package too. Scott Harris is in his second year running baseball operations, and he is not going to take a soft deal. The Tigers need players who can contribute by 2027, not 2030.
The cost is going to be steep. The asset is worth it. Skubal in a postseason rotation is the difference between a wild card exit and a World Series. He is exactly the kind of pitcher who wins games against the Dodgers and Yankees in October.
The trade is coming. The only question is which team is willing to pay what it actually costs to get him.
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.
