All through the month of July, Tarik Skubal’s title incessantly surfaced in studies of groups eyeing rotation upgrades. He was broadly thought of to be a long-shot commerce candidate, at finest — we listed him fiftieth on our Prime 50 commerce candidate listing, noting his unequalled capacity to impression a brand new membership but in addition the Tigers’ unwillingness to maneuver him — but it surely 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 achieve this, 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 shifting. At a information 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 stated with out hesitation by way of 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 studies’ which might 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 likelihood. Nonetheless, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Instances studies that the Dodgers, who naturally had sturdy curiosity in Skubal, got here away with the impression that the left-hander wasn’t obtainable “in any situation,” passing alongside that one supply indicated Detroit “wouldn’t speak about Skubal in any respect.”
It’s simple to shrug off feedback and studies alongside these strains as irrelevant. What’s finished is finished and Skubal is a Tiger. Nothing will change that in the interim. On the identical time, it additionally affords a possible glimpse into the offseason and the long run. 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 have interaction 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 greater, there’s little purpose to suppose they’d give sturdy 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 pursuits and commerce inquiries, Harris sidestepped and stated his focus for now’s the ultimate two months of the season.
“It’s July proper now,” stated Harris. “We’ve received quite a lot of work to do that 12 months. … We’ve got quite a lot of younger gamers within the huge leagues who have to get a complete lot higher. I feel you guys are seeing some flashes of it. I feel once you see a few of these gamers, what they seemed like in April and now what they appear like in July, it’s a very good instance of what we will be as a corporation. However we will’t simply begin wanting into the winter proper now. We’ve got quite a lot of work to do in August and September to ensure the gamers on this and the gamers which might be going to impression this crew within the second half are arising and getting higher. That’s the place our focus is true now.”
