05/21/2026 1:10p EDT Cleveland Guardians at Detroit Tigers

[chasfh]

25 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

so given this and your post about the likely  future of any Tiger team that went 2-15 - is the inescapable conclusion that the only rational thing to do is offer him (and anyone else over 26 that will bring back value)  in trade while there are still 4 months left in the season?

If you're ever going to get to the top of the mountain you have be ruthless in your self-evaluation.

I myself escape that conclusion. We get pennies on the dollar while he is still hurt. 

[Shelton]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

The $64 question is how much any team will pay for two months of even the best guy in baseball. A lot of folks here think it would be a "haul", which I envision people here imagining to be something like an organization's best hitting prospect at the AAA or MLB level who can help us now and their best pitching prospect at the AA level or below who can help in two years and a serviceable pitcher at the AAA or MLB level who can pitch for us now plus a lottery ticket or two.

Or is there a haul less than this that people are imagining and would find quite acceptable?

I don’t think I could estimate what a collective group might be expecting, but I do think we may have something close to an actual efficiently operating market when it comes to selling Skubal, because I don’t think anyone is going to be able to get away with making a lowball offer and expecting it to be accepted because of a lack of better offers. 
 

This is not Eduardo or Jack Flaherty. A team cannot go elsewhere and get another comparable version.

But yeah, of course there will be a limit. The easiest thing to do in these cases is to simply try and put yourself in the other side‘s position. If Paul Skenes is on the market in the same situation three years from now, and the tigers are contending, would I be open to them trading last year’s McGonigle? Maybe. I wouldn’t have done it for Mason miller, as much as I like him. 
 

So it’s always going to come down to specific needs and personalities.

[Shelton]

38 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

The problem is he has to show that he is healthy and able to pitch at his usual elite level in order to get any kind of worthwhile offer.  I think there is a good chance they won't get anyone better than the 31-35 pick they would get for losing him.  

I think if any GM is unwilling to give more value than that (assuming he returns in mid June and makes 6+ weeks worth of Skubal-level starts), then they should all lose their jobs. The value of that pick is a guy in the back end of a team’s top 10.

[Tiger337]

1 minute ago, Shelton said:

I think if any GM is unwilling to give more value than that (assuming he returns in mid June and makes 6+ weeks worth of Skubal-level starts), then they should all lose their jobs. The value of that pick is a guy in the back end of a team’s top 10.

Maybe I am underestimating what they can get, but I don't think they are getting a McGonigle level prospect for a two-month rental though.  They may get a package, but I don't think the best player in the package will be guy who has received an 80 scouting grade for hitting.  

[gehringer_2]

32 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

Maybe I am underestimating what they can get, but I don't think they are getting a McGonigle level prospect for a two-month rental though.  They may get a package, but I don't think the best player in the package will be guy who has received an 80 scouting grade for hitting.  

the argument going into the season was that if you had a chance to win, keeping him through the season would be worth more than any likely return. So the part about the return not being great hasn't changed, what's changing rapidly is his potential value to a team that isn't going anywhere. How good does the return have to be to be more valuable than the difference between finishing 4 and 5th? Chasfh is correct you can't really do anything until he is pitching again, but that could still be substantially before the deadline.