As a historic milestone dissolves into a gut-punch loss, the looming trade of Detroit’s homegrown ace threatens to end an era before the rebuild ever truly began.
Watching Tarik Skubal pitch Wednesday afternoon was supposed to provide a few hours of relief from the trade rumors and the frustration surrounding the Detroit Tigers.
For most of the afternoon, it did.
Skubal recorded his 1,000th career strikeout, received an emotional ovation from the Comerica Park crowd and left after 6 2/3 innings with the Tigers leading the Baltimore Orioles, 7-1. The Tigers eventually blew a seven-run lead and lost, 10-9, in 12 innings. Skubal became the fastest pitcher in Tigers history to reach 1,000 strikeouts, accomplishing it in 857 innings and surpassing Max Scherzer.
The loss felt like someone popped a balloon.
It was not only the way the Tigers lost. It was the timing of it. After Skubal left, the bullpen could not finish the job, Baltimore kept coming and a game that should have been remembered as another milestone in his career became one of the most frustrating losses of the season.
Then came another development later Wednesday night. ESPN’s Jeff Passan said he expects the Tigers to trade Skubal before Monday’s deadline. There has not been a deal, and expectations can change quickly at this time of year. Still, when one of baseball’s most connected reporters says Skubal is likely to be traded, the possibility begins to feel much more real.
For me, that is when the frustration became something else.
I started thinking about seeing Skubal pitch in West Michigan and Erie during the early years of our Tigers Minor League Report coverage. I thought about watching him learn how to pitch, seeing the fastball explode through the zone and wondering whether Detroit had found something other organizations had missed.
Skubal was not supposed to become the face of the Tigers’ rotation.
Detroit selected him in the ninth round of the 2018 MLB Draft, 255th overall, after Tommy John surgery had cost him the 2017 season at Seattle University. His walk total after returning also contributed to him falling in the draft. He entered his first full professional season outside the top group of prospects in a system built around Casey Mize, Matt Manning and Alex Faedo.
Those were the names receiving most of the attention. They were the first-round picks and the pitchers expected to lead the Tigers out of another rebuild.
Then Skubal made it impossible to ignore him.
He struck out 179 batters in 122 2/3 innings between Lakeland and Erie in 2019. After reaching Double-A, he recorded 82 strikeouts in only 42 1/3 innings and reached double-digit strikeouts in seven of his nine starts. His swinging-strike rate was the best among minor league pitchers who threw at least 120 innings that season.
You could see him figuring things out. That is one of the reasons I enjoy minor league coverage. You are not watching a finished product. You are watching players adjust, fail, learn and occasionally turn themselves into something nobody could have reasonably predicted.
At Erie, Skubal spoke about becoming more aggressive with his fastball and learning that Double-A hitters would make him pay for mistakes. His velocity had become more consistent, his breaking ball was missing bats and his changeup was beginning to develop. He was learning how his stuff could work against better hitters.
Eventually, that ninth-round pick became a back-to-back Cy Young Award winner and one of the best pitchers in baseball.
For someone who watched a lot of bad Tigers baseball in the 1990s, there was something satisfying about that journey. The Tigers have had great pitchers during my lifetime. The 2013 rotation remains the obvious example, and Justin Verlander provided another homegrown ace who became part of franchise history.
Skubal’s path still felt different. He was not a first-round pick who developed according to plan. He was a pitcher with a significant injury history, inconsistent control and enough questions to remain available until the ninth round. The Tigers’ scouts identified something, the development staff helped him refine it and Skubal did the work required to turn raw ability into a complete arsenal.
Detroit finally found legitimate pitching value beyond the top of the draft.
That is why the possibility of trading him hurts more than losing a great starting pitcher. It feels like watching one of the organization’s best scouting and player development stories leave before the Tigers accomplished what they were supposed to accomplish with him.
There may be a perfectly reasonable baseball argument for trading Skubal. He can become a free agent after the season, the Tigers are below .500 and the return could reshape the organization. Holding him without a realistic extension path would carry considerable risk.
Fans can understand all of that and still hate the situation.
The Tigers spent years rebuilding while asking people to invest emotionally in prospects, development and the idea of eventually creating a sustainable winner. Skubal became the best possible example of that process working. Now that he has reached the top of the sport, the conversation has shifted toward maximizing his trade value.
It is difficult to accept that without asking how the Tigers reached this point.
Wednesday’s game almost felt like a summary of the entire situation. Skubal gave the Tigers exactly what they needed. The offense provided him with a seven-run lead. For a few innings, Comerica Park had the energy of a team trying to save its season and possibly keep its ace.
Then everything unraveled after he walked off the mound.
Skubal said afterward that he hoped Tigers fans felt he had given everything he could to the team and the city. He also described reaching 1,000 strikeouts as a milestone that made him think about his entire career.
If Wednesday was his final start for the Tigers, he gave them more than enough.
I hope the rumors are wrong. I hope the Tigers either find a way to keep Skubal or decide that no trade package can justify moving him. But watching that game, I was no longer thinking about prospect rankings, surplus value or which contender could put together the best offer.
I was thinking about West Michigan and Erie. I was thinking about those early reports and watching a ninth-round left-hander learn how to use his fastball, improve his command and develop into an ace.
I was thinking about all the years of bad Tigers baseball and how rare it is to see Detroit develop one of the best pitchers in the world.
If Skubal is traded, I will understand the baseball reasons behind it. That does not mean it will feel like a normal transaction.
It will feel like the Tigers found something special, watched it become great, and then sent the rest of the story somewhere else. We have seen that already too much and quite frankly, as a fan, it sucks.
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