Tigers in a Quandary With Tarik Skubal

By Sal Maiorana

June 1, 2026

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When the season began, one of the big storylines was what were the Tigers going to do with superstar left-handed pitcher Tarik Skubal who is eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2027.

To me, it was pretty simple: As the consensus favorite to win the always mediocre AL Central, a prognostication I agreed with, there was no way they should trade their best player at the deadline. Yes, the return package would be massive, but why would the Tigers potentially punt a playoff appearance rather than keep Skubal and take a swing at a championship, something the Tigers have not celebrated since 1984?

Detroit has made the postseason just eight times since winning that World Series and there have been some horribly dark years including five where it lost at least 100 games, the worst being the 114-loss abomination in 2019. It snapped a nine-year absence in 2024, then made it back in 2025 despite somehow blowing a 10-game lead in September and losing the division to the Guardians on the last day of the season, one of the greatest collapses in MLB history.

Now, they did make amends by impressively beating Cleveland in the wild-card round before losing to Seattle in the AL Divisional Series, but it was a traumatic year and their fans were still a little raw from that experience when this season started which is why I just didn’t think the Tigers would move Skubal, even though it would obviously be terrible to lose him for nothing in free agency.

However, the equation has changed rather drastically because the Tigers have gotten off to a dreadful start and are one of the most disappointing teams in MLB this season. The latest debacle occurred Friday night in Chicago as the Tigers lost 4-3 to the White Sox.

They led 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth but closer Kyle Finnegan allowed two singles so it was first and third, one out. Rikuu Nishida dropped down a bunt and Finnegan fielded it but he didn’t look Andrew Benintendi back to third and as soon as he threw to first, Benintendi broke for home and he scored after a wild throw to the plate.

The Tigers scored their free runner in the top of the 10th, but then after retiring the first two batters in the bottom half, Drew Anderson threw a bad changeup and Miguel Vargas crushed it for a walk-off two-run homer, the Tigers’ seventh walk-off loss of the season.

Now 22-36, they’re dead last in the Central, 10.5 games behind the Guardians, and tied with the Angels for the worst record in the AL and if they don’t turn it around and at least get back into the wild-card chase in the next two months, then it would make zero sense not to deal Skubal to a contending team.

How much does Skubal mean to the Tigers? They were 18-17 when they announced that he had to undergo surgery on his elbow and since then they’ve lost 19 of 23 games. Obviously there are several reasons for that, it’s not just Skubal who would have pitched maybe five or six of those games. But they’ve clearly been rocked by losing their ace who won a record one-year salary of $32 million in arbitration in the offseason.

As elbow surgeries go, his was considered relatively minor and he’s already throwing simulated games so he could return to the rotation in a few weeks. Assuming he’s the Skubal of old and the Tigers don’t recover, he’s going to be a hot commodity as the Aug. 3 trade deadline approaches, the biggest trade chip we’ve seen for quite a while.