All through the month of July, Tarik Skubal’s title regularly surfaced in stories of groups eyeing rotation upgrades. He was extensively thought-about to be a long-shot commerce candidate, at greatest — we listed him fiftieth on our High 50 commerce candidate listing, noting his unmatched capacity to impression a brand new membership but additionally 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 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 stated with out hesitation (video hyperlink through WXYZ Detroit sports activities director Brad Galli). “There have been a number of rumors that floated on the market. There are a number of ’unconfirmed stories’ which are 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 suggestion that made him contemplate the likelihood. Nonetheless, 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 state of affairs,” writing that one supply indicated Detroit “wouldn’t discuss Skubal in any respect.”
On the one hand, it’s straightforward to shrug feedback and stories alongside these traces off as irrelevant. What’s executed is completed, and Skubal is a Tiger. Nothing will change that in the interim. However, it additionally provides a possible glimpse into the offseason and the long run. Had the Tigers been legitimately entertaining Skubal provides however merely not discovered a suggestion 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 state of affairs the place Skubal is genuinely obtainable this winter. If the Tigers wouldn’t even focus on him in July, when the return would theoretically be even greater, there’s little cause 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 extra seasons, was an indicator that Detroit can be aggressive in its offseason free agent and commerce pursuits, Harris sidestepped and stated his focus for now could be the ultimate two months of the season.
“It’s July proper now,” stated Harris. “We’ve received a number of work to do that yr. … We now have a number of younger gamers within the large leagues who must get an entire lot higher. I feel you guys are seeing some flashes of it. I feel if you see a few of these gamers, what they regarded like in April and now what they appear like in July, it’s an excellent instance of what we will be as a company. However we will’t simply begin trying into the winter proper now. We now have a number of work to do in August and September to verify the gamers on this and the gamers which are going to impression this crew within the second half are developing and getting higher. That’s the place our focus is true now.”
