Tigers Say the Unthinkable, Reveal Tarik Skubal Is Not Untouchable
A back-to-back Cy Young award winner on a playoff team that’s trending in the right direction should be untouchable in trade talks. Apparently, Tarik Skubal is not. The Detroit Tigers are apparently open to trading him for the right price, though it remains unlikely that any team will offer such a deal.
2x Cy Young award winner somehow not ‘untouchable’
The Winter Meetings are where a lot of things happen in the MLB offseason. Could a Tarik Skubal trade, which would undoubtedly break the sport, be next? It’s apparently not impossible, according to Detroit Tigers president Scott Harris revealed.
"I don't believe in untouchable players at any level," Harris said via ESPN. "It's not a commentary on Tarik; it's more of a blanket approach to building a winning organization. My job is to make this organization better ... which means that I need to listen to every opportunity, no matter how likely or unlikely it is to actually happen. I've got to listen because we've got to get better as an organization, so that's our approach.”
Harris isn’t specifically naming Skubal as a player available, but if there’s one player on a team that should be untouchable, it’s the two-time Cy Young winner. Skubal won the Triple Crown and Cy in 2024, and then he followed it up with another Cy in 2025. That sort of player shouldn’t be available at all.
If the Tigers were bad, this would be different. It’s not a Paul Skenes situation, though a Skenes trade would be irresponsible, too. The Tigers made the playoffs in 2024 and 2025. They’re trending upward, so re-signing Skubal or at least not trading him early is the only move they should be considering.
Unfortunately, the Tigers may regret not signing him early. For now, Skubal is a Tiger. But he hits free agency in a year. He’d be easier to sign now (or before now) than in free agency, and he’ll probably cost less now than in a year.
If Skubal hits the open market, the Tigers can probably kiss him goodbye. Big-market teams with money to spend will jump on the ace and sign him to a contract for 10 or more years. The Tigers, unfortunately, are unlikely to avoid free agency.
Skubal’s a Scott Boras client, and Boras players rarely ever sign extensions this close to free agency. Boras knows his players are good and that they’ll get way more in free agency than on an extension, and with only a year left to theoretically risk an injury, an extension may not be in their best interests. It’s in Detroit’s best interests, but Boras doesn’t represent the team.
And so for now, Harris remains focused on the season. “It's going to take all of us, it's going to take every little thing, to get to the postseason. Listen, Tarik's a Tiger right now. We're thrilled he's a Tiger. ... He's a huge part of what we're doing right now,” he said.
Harris also added, "I think we have a really good team that we're going to put on the field -- and I think Tarik is a big part of that -- but there are a lot of really talented players in this organization and in the big leagues that are helping us win a lot.” This seems to be implying that the Tigers aren’t reliant on Skubal to succeed, which is only partly true.
A lot of MLB players go into winning baseball games, but it’s no secret that having a Skubal-level player helps way more than almost anything else. It seems as if Harris is trying to soften the blow for a potential exit, whether by trade or in free agency when the big teams can get their hands on him.
