All through the month of July, Tarik Skubal’s title incessantly surfaced in stories of groups eyeing rotation upgrades. He was extensively thought of to be a long-shot commerce candidate, at greatest — we listed him fiftieth on our High 50 commerce candidate checklist, noting his unmatched skill to affect a brand new membership but in addition the Tigers’ unwillingness to maneuver him — nevertheless it appeared as if groups would possibly nonetheless attempt to blow the Tigers out of the water because the deadline drew nearer.
Maybe different golf equipment certainly hoped to have the ability to accomplish that, however Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris made clear in his post-deadline feedback that Skubal was by no means on the cusp of transferring. At a press convention to debate the trades of Jack Flaherty, Mark Canha, Andrew Chafin and Carson Kelly, Harris was requested how shut he got here to buying and selling Skubal, the presumptive Cy Younger front-runner within the American League.
“Not shut,” Harris mentioned with out hesitation (video hyperlink through WXYZ Detroit sports activities director Brad Galli). “There have been quite a lot of rumors that floated on the market. There are quite a lot of ’unconfirmed stories’ which can be simply completely inaccurate. We by no means got here near buying and selling Skubal.”
Harris declined to touch upon whether or not there was ever any temptation or a proposal that made him think about the chance. Nevertheless, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Occasions stories that the Dodgers, who naturally had robust curiosity in Skubal, got here away with the impression that the left-hander wasn’t obtainable “in any situation,” writing that one supply indicated Detroit “wouldn’t speak about Skubal in any respect.”
On the one hand, it’s straightforward to shrug feedback and stories alongside these strains off as irrelevant. What’s executed is completed, and Skubal is a Tiger. Nothing will change that in the meanwhile. Alternatively, it additionally affords a possible glimpse into the offseason and the longer term. Had the Tigers been legitimately entertaining Skubal affords however merely not discovered a proposal to their liking, he’d stand as a logical offseason commerce candidate. However with Detroit’s ostensible refusal to even interact in discussions on him, it turns into all of the harder to ascertain a situation the place Skubal is genuinely obtainable this winter. If the Tigers wouldn’t even talk about him in July, when the return would theoretically be even larger, there’s little motive to suppose they’d give robust consideration to buying and selling him a number of months from now.
Requested whether or not the choice to hold onto Skubal, who’s solely managed for 2 further seasons, was an indicator that Detroit could be aggressive in its offseason free agent and commerce pursuits, Harris sidestepped and mentioned his focus for now’s the ultimate two months of the season.
“It’s July proper now,” mentioned Harris. “We’ve obtained quite a lot of work to do that yr. … Now we have quite a lot of younger gamers within the massive leagues who must get an entire lot higher. I believe you guys are seeing some flashes of it. I believe once you see a few of these gamers, what they seemed like in April and now what they seem like in July, it’s a great instance of what we could be as a corporation. However we are able to’t simply begin wanting into the winter proper now. Now we have quite a lot of work to do in August and September to ensure the gamers on this and the gamers which can be going to affect this crew within the second half are developing and getting higher. That’s the place our focus is correct now.”
