Detroit Tigers ace lefthander Tarik Skubal cemented himself as the best pitcher in the American League by capturing his second consecutive Cy Young Award earlier in November. And yet, Skubal's name is popping up in trade rumors as MLB's hot stove heats up this winter.
Why?
Tigers‘s reported lowball extension offer to Skubal with free agency looming
Skubal, 29, will be a free agent at season‘s end in 2026. The Tigers, undoubtedly aware of the caliber of pitcher they possess and looking to get ahead of things, in November of 2024 made a contract extension offer to Skubal that his representation, bank-breaking agent Scott Boras, deemed "non-competitive." This past month, with Skubal's '26 free agency still looming and his price tag soaring ever higher on the heels of back-to-back Cy Young Award-winning campaigns, the Tigers reportedly made another offer to the ace lefthander, but the two sides weren't close. The apparent negotiations gulf between Skubal and the Tigers has opened the door to a trade.
Why a Skubal trade makes sense for the Tigers
Skubal has posted back-to-back seasons with a sub-3.00 ERA and 220-plus strikeouts with fewer than 40 walks in 190-plus innings. He's one of the last truly dominant aces in baseball in a bullpen-heavy era where the give-me-the-ball-and-get-out-of-the-way type starter isn't as prevalent as in past years. MLB has never seen a free agent pitcher command a contract at—or north of—$400 million.
There's every reason to believe that Skubal could become the first.
Represented by Boras, it's very likely that Skubal will hit free agency. Boras is fresh off of an offseason in which he helped Juan Soto land the richest contract for a position player in baseball history. For several million reasons, he'd love to see Skubal surpass Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto's $325 million deal next winter, meaning that Boras clients would own the largest contracts among both position players and pitchers.
And while Boras told reporters he's "prepared to listen" to overtures from Tigers principal owner Chris Ilitch and president of baseball operations Scott Harris in terms of a pre-free agency Skubal contract, a deal seems unlikely to materialize before the star pitcher hits the open market, given the way Boras has traditionally done business. When you consider the Tigers‘ resources, it's reasonable to think that Skubal hitting the open market could spell doom for its chances of retaining the ace. Of the 12 teams that made the postseason in 2025, Detroit's payroll ranked ninth. The Tigers again project to have a payroll that ranks in the bottom half of the league's 30 teams. As great as Skubal is, would the Tigers be willing to allocate a hefty chunk of that payroll to one player?
Should Skubal walk in free agency in '26, Detroit would likely recoup a draft pick in terms of compensation.
That's where a trade potentially factors in.
Given how good he is, Skubal could command a massive haul of prospects as part of a trade return. After the 2025 trade deadline, Detroit's farm system checked in as the sixth-best in MLB.com's rankings. The Tigers boast four top-100 prospects, but none of them are pitchers. In fact, of the Tigers's top-10 prospects, just one of them is a pitcher. Perhaps the Tigers, already armed with one of baseball's youngest rosters, lean further into a youth movement, particularly on the pitching side, to capitalize on the potential loss of Skubal?
If so, there's an argument about when the best time to trade Skubal would be. This winter, giving contending teams a potential alternative against the backdrop of a solid starting pitching free agent market that lacks a true ace? Or at the '26 trade deadline, giving the (hopefully) contending Tigers a chance to assess how its season is going, and, potentially convince Skubal to remain in Detroit without him testing the open market.
It's a bit of a precarious position for the Tigers front office. Such is the business of baseball.
More MLB on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Why a Tarik Skubal Trade Makes Sense for Tigers .
