Will Tigers Pony up for Skubal

[chasfh]

It wouldn’t be completely up to Harris, and a failure on his part, to bring Tatis to Detroit, anyway. It does not pass any smell test that the Padres would take a run at the playoffs and the Dodgers this year by trading for the best pitcher in the game in exchange for sending away their #1 impact franchise player.

[Tiger337]

It makes no sense for either team 

[AlaskanTigersFan]

On 6/23/2026 at 6:36 PM, AlaskanTigersFan said:

If we don't win this year, and we don't trade Skubal, it will set us back 5+ years. We have the chance to build around Clark, McGonigle and Dingler..... to not do it is malpractice. 

If we don't trade Skubal, we will be the Angels 2.0. Look how long they've been in purgatory and how long they will continue to be in purgatory. That team will suck for another 10 years because they didn't trade Ohtani. Biggest mistake in history of MLB. Harris will be fired and he should if the Tigers don't trade Skubal and they won't win the entire WS......

Quote

“They have to move Skubal; there’s no way around it,” an AL executive said. “They will set that franchise back 10 years if they don’t. He’s gone at the end of the year regardless, and they can pull Major League assets back.”

- https://www.mlb.com/news/tigers-trade-candidates-for-2026-deadline

Sometimes I legit think I could be a Major League General Manager...... Call me crazy 
😂😂😒😒😁😁😉😉😜😜
 

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

Sometimes I legit think I could be a Major League General Manager...... Call me crazy 
😂😂😒😒😁😁😉😉😜😜
 

Angels have an opening. Try hr@angels.com, that should probably get there.

[Tiger337]

How is it going to set them back ten years?  Is Skubal the only player they have added the last 10 years?

[1984Echoes]

4 hours ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

Sometimes I legit think I could be a Major League General Manager...... Call me crazy 
😂😂😒😒😁😁😉😉😜😜
 

So, you're saying...

This AL executive is as good at hyperbole as you are?

[casimir]

7 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

How is it going to set them back ten years?

It shouldn't.

[NorthWoods]

25 minutes ago, casimir said:

It shouldn't.

This is not an interwebz approved take.

[tiger2022]

8 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

How is it going to set them back ten years?  Is Skubal the only player they have added the last 10 years?

 In 2016, Verlander finished 2nd in the Cy Young, Cabrera wasn't washed up.  Fulmer was the ROY, and the team won 86 games with Brad Ausmus as manager.

I'd take that over 2026.

[AlaskanTigersFan]

9 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

How is it going to set them back ten years?  Is Skubal the only player they have added the last 10 years?

Losing Skubal for a pick between the 1st and 2nd round of the draft would be absolutely devestating. If you get the next Riley Greene AND the next 2026 version of Casey Mize and the 2026 version of McGonigle back from trading Skubal, that will drastically improve your team going forward. We are not getting two B level prospects. We are talking about getting two top 50 prospects in ALL of baseball back and then some. That is how you build your team. 

Going forward right now, we have Jobe, Greene (who is still at 30% K rate and climbing), McGonigle, and Dingler to build around. That's four out of 28 roster spots...... You have got to supplement them with more talent. Sure we got Clark, Rainer, and some others coming. But we need STUDS. I'm not convinced Carpenter, or Keith will be true STUDS. We need guys that will fight for all star lineup spots every year. This team has four MAYBE, MAYBE five first division Regulars. That's half a lineup. Means jack crap right now. They need talent and not selling Skubal would be the worst decision in Tigers history and that's saying something.......... Again, my $0.02. 

[Tiger337]

11 minutes ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

Losing Skubal for a pick between the 1st and 2nd round of the draft would be absolutely devestating. If you get the next Riley Greene AND the next 2026 version of Casey Mize and the 2026 version of McGonigle back from trading Skubal 

ok...

[monkeytargets39]

I wouldn’t say it would set us back a decade—but I do think it dramatically alters the course of things over the next ten years.

 

It seems reasonable to think that we could get a top 100 level outfielder and a decent SP prospect for Skubal.  Especially when you look at the teams that are likely to be in on him and what they have available in the minors.

Let’s say for this exercise, we only get real value for Skubal in a return and ignore possible outcomes on Mize/Torres/Flaherty/Jansen and all of those contracts plus Jake Rogers and DeJesus come off the books this offseason.  We are looking then at going from roughly a $241 million payroll down to a $115 million payroll.  Lots of room to play with even if we don’t spend the same amount for next year.  CBA will obviously have an impact here.

 

Assuming health for 2027, you’d be looking at:

C- Dingler/Backup Catcher

1B-Torkelson

2B-McGonigle

SS-Baez

3B-Keith

LF-Greene

CF-Clark

RF- Acquisition from Skubal trade

DH-Carpenter

and we can ballpark a bench of McKinstry, Vierling, Malgeri, Backup Catcher.

Rotation: Valdez, Melton, Jobe, Montero, Olson (with Madden, Skubal Acquisition, and perhaps Anderson as other options.)

McKinstry, Vest, Holton, Brieske and Vierling are all Arb 2/3 eligible, so you could non-tender a bunch of these guys to clear some room for upgrades.  At this point, perhaps the only one I’d be ok with bringing back would be Holton.  If you get an outfielder and a starter option back for Skubal—now you have A LOT of wiggle room and payroll with roster spots for next year.

SP is still a priority because you can never have enough—and I can see the team trying to sign Mize to a multi-year deal, although we would probably overpay and hopefully get some opt out years if his injury frequencies persist.  You could put a lot of that energy into upgrading the bullpen a lot and looking at upgrading 1B and relegating Tork to a bench role or just cutting bait entirely.  Ideally Carpenter DHs mostly and Keith can get a lot of work at 3B between now and next year to be a viable option defensively.  There’s also the need to find a backup catcher for Dingler who isn’t an absolute black hole offensively so we can properly rest Ding.
 

Looking at the upcoming free agents for this off-season, you could easily target a backup C like Jonah Heim and a better overall 1B option like Nathaniel Lowe for relatively cheap.  Then there’s the task of upgrading the Pen.

 

If we don’t trade Skubal, then we probably aren’t trading Mize or Gleyber either, and we just settle for the comp pick as a return—you’re hoping there’s value in that, which isn’t a guarantee and also likely will be years away from helping.  
 

Now we enter the offseason still needing upgrades at RP, 1B, 3B, Backup C, and now outfield and we have less options for starters internally.  Instead of acquiring cost controlled younger guys at the deadline—we now have to look to spend more money in free agency to upgrade OR we resign to running it back with a lot of what we have.  If we don’t acquire a legitimate corner OF prospect—we are likely running it back with some kind of Carpenter platoon—and likely hanging onto a guy like Vierling.  
 

The you can look at signing Mize back, but we still have limited options for what to do with the rotation without also signing another SP.  If Carpenter is the primary RF with a platoon partner for lefties, you’re probably looking at Keith primarily DHing.  Which means we are either playing McGonigle at 3B with Javy at SS and Lee/Anderson at 2B, or we are getting another season of McKinstry and McGonigle bouncing all around the infield.  There’s nothing available at this point on the open market to bring in for 3B unless you wanna try to overpay for Bo Bichette if he opts out.  
 

You’re likely running out:

C- Dingler/backup

1B- Tork

2B- Lee/Anderson

SS- Javy/McKinstry

3B- McGonigle

LF- Greene

CF- Clark

RF- Carpenter

DH- Keith

and probably having McKinstry and one of Vierling/Malgeri platooning with Carp.  So defense again is questionable at a lot of corner OF spots as well as multiple infield spots, and help isn’t really coming in the minors until Rainer and possibly Peck can break through.  We probably have another 2 years of Briceno in the minor leagues also.  

Without trading Skubal, it just looks like we’d potentially be in much more of a run-it-back scenario with a lot of these guys that we need to be moving on from for next year based on how the end of 2025 and 2026 has gone.  There’s a lot more places to upgrade and not necessarily many options to address all of them adequately.  If you can use Skubal to address either RF or 1B and add some SP depth to the system, that really helps narrow the focus down to just the bullpen and refreshing the bench.  Lastly, regardless of team performance next year, there’s no key expiring deals that would be obvious players we could move at next years deadline to help make up the difference.  It’s Javy—who won’t be worth anything, and everyone else is either signed or has to go through arbitration.  

So you have to strike while the iron is hot here with a Skubal trade, because upgrades are going to be MUCH harder to come by after this deadline between lack of free agent options and lack of valuable trade assets.  The team could still be very good over the next 5-10 years, but that heavily depends on some guys really stepping up who haven’t proven they can do that to this point.
 

 

[papalawrence]

Set back 10 years? That's silly. If Det goes back to the floor and struggles for a decade to get back to contention it will be about much more than losing Skubal. 

That said I am all for trading him at this point. If a mammoth offer comes in today, go ahead. More likely they'll keep clawing for a win streak and ultimately trade him in a month.

 

[Tenacious D]

So, if Skubal were to sustain a career-ending injury this season, we believe this organization would be set back 5-10 years?  This is an insane take.

[AlaskanTigersFan]

8 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

So, if Skubal were to sustain a career-ending injury this season, we believe this organization would be set back 5-10 years?  This is an insane take.

Legitimately curious. Next year without Skubal, as our team sits now. Do you see us making the playoffs? 

[4hzglory]

39 minutes ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

Legitimately curious. Next year without Skubal, as our team sits now. Do you see us making the playoffs? 

I think they have a reasonable chance in the central.  But whether they do or not doesn't mean they are set back 5 years, let alone 10.

And I hope I'm wrong, but I think you will be disappointed with the return if you expect a Greene, current McGonigle, and 2026 Mize for Skubal.  If we get one of the Dodgers OF's, they are at best reastically potentially Greene in 2-3 years, and 1 starter is more likely 2024-2025 Mize right now at best.  Then maybe we get a lottery ticket thrown in from A ball.

[AlaskanTigersFan]

2 hours ago, 4hzglory said:

I think they have a reasonable chance in the central.  But whether they do or not doesn't mean they are set back 5 years, let alone 10.

And I hope I'm wrong, but I think you will be disappointed with the return if you expect a Greene, current McGonigle, and 2026 Mize for Skubal.  If we get one of the Dodgers OF's, they are at best reastically potentially Greene in 2-3 years, and 1 starter is more likely 2024-2025 Mize right now at best.  Then maybe we get a lottery ticket thrown in from A ball.

I think we can legit get someone like De Paula and Emmet Sheehan plus a throw in. I really do. That will help us 10x more than just a comp pick. 

[4hzglory]

3 minutes ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

I think we can legit get someone like De Paula and Emmet Sheehan plus a throw in. I really do. That will help us 10x more than just a comp pick. 

But that’s a far cry from Greene, 2026 Mize, and 2026 McGonigle that you said earlier.

 

And I do think what you just posted is a reasonable expectation.

Edited June 29 by 4hzglory

[chasfh]

4 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

So, if Skubal were to sustain a career-ending injury this season, we believe this organization would be set back 5-10 years?  This is an insane take.

Well, no, that would apparently set us back more than ten years, since they wouldn't even get the pick between the 1st and 2nd round of the draft in exchange for the injury. 😏

[Tigermojo]

25 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Well, no, that would apparently set us back more than ten years, since they wouldn't even get the pick between the 1st and 2nd round of the draft in exchange for the injury. 😏

I've been a fan since '89. A decade of mediocrity won't scare me away. Been there, done that. 

[chasfh]

8 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

I've been a fan since '89. A decade of mediocrity won't scare me away. Been there, done that. 

Even if we lose Skubal for nothing, it's not going to set us back ten years. It's not even going to set us back five years. I think we'd be fine starting next year. But then, I don't think we're going to lose Skubal to a career-ending injury. *knock knock*

[Dan Gilmore]

Yeah, this ten years crap is ridiculous. To hear it keep on being repeated, 

[Tigermojo]

38 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Even if we lose Skubal for nothing, it's not going to set us back ten years. It's not even going to set us back five years. I think we'd be fine starting next year. But then, I don't think we're going to lose Skubal to a career-ending injury. *knock knock*

Nothing would surprise me about the AL Central at this point.

[AlaskanTigersFan]

39 minutes ago, chasfh said:

Even if we lose Skubal for nothing, it's not going to set us back ten years. It's not even going to set us back five years. I think we'd be fine starting next year. But then, I don't think we're going to lose Skubal to a career-ending injury. *knock knock*

I think this team sucks and needs lots of help. We have 5 players that are worthy of being on a World Series team and another 23 that should be no where near the major leagues..... But yet 8 out of 10 on this board think we are WS contenders in the next 5 years.

[casimir]

1 minute ago, AlaskanTigersFan said:

I think this team sucks and needs lots of help. We have 5 players that are worthy of being on a World Series team and another 23 that should be no where near the major leagues..... But yet 8 out of 10 on this board think we are WS contenders in the next 5 years.

Seems a bit drastic.