Tarik Skubal said the Tigers must play better baseball or risk giving the front office reason to reshape the roster at the deadline.
The Detroit Tigers sit at 30-44 and are 9.5 games behind the Chicago White Sox in the American League Central, and things feel more dire than they should as the team continues to fall behind in that race. It led to Tigers ace Tarik Skubal issuing a blunt warning ahead of the trade deadline to “play better baseball or else.”
While not exactly sounding an alarm, it’s certainly a call for urgency as Skubal prepares to make his second start back following a May 6 elbow surgery to remove bone fragments. He sees things slipping away from the team as they still sit 6.5 games back from the final AL Wild Card spot, and feels the team either needs to start winning or the front office should look to blow things up.
It sets up their weekend series versus the division-leading White Sox as a must-win, and while it shouldn’t feel like playoff baseball needs to be played in June, that’s sort of where Detroit is at. It hasn’t helped that skipper A.J. Hinch has cost the team games with decision-making, and perhaps that’s where some of the problem lies as much as on the roster.
To read more about a deep dive into Hinch’s approach this season and why it’s detrimental, here is the full analysis from Tigers Roundtable writer Nick Faber.
The biggest chip on the block just might be Skubal, as the two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner is set to become a free agent after this season.
He could command a massive return on the trade market should he become available, and perhaps that’s the blunt warning he’s delivering as they look to get right against Chicago.
