DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers remain “engaged with other teams” on Tarik Skubal trade talks, according to a report.
ESPN’s Buster Olney posted Friday on X, saying that it’s still unclear if the Tigers will trade Skubal, but that they “continue to be engaged with other teams in discussing” options.
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The Tigers’ asking prices are “enormous,” according to the report, as they should be for the back-to-back AL Cy Young award winner.
“The Tigers can end the conversation at any point by announcing they’re keeping him,” Olney wrote.
Skubal is entering his final season before free agency -- his seventh with the Tigers, counting his brief debut during the 2020 COVID season.
Last year, Skubal struck out 241 batters in 195.1 innings while posting a 0.89 WHIP and 2.21 ERA. That’s after he struck out 228 batters in 192 innings with a 0.92 WHIP and 2.39 ERA in 2024.
Skubal is elite at missing bats, getting weak contact, and throwing strikes. His ground ball rate dropped from 2024 to 2025, but it was still league average.
The change-up -- his most-used pitch -- posted an unbelievable 46.8% whiff rate in 2025, meaning batters came up empty nearly half the times they swung at the pitch.
The Tigers are coming off consecutive trips to Game 5 of the ALDS, with both playoff runs led by Skubal. He struggled in Game 5 against Cleveland in 2024, but dominated in Seattle this year before the Tigers lost in extra innings.
With Reese Olson, Casey Mize, Jack Flaherty, and Troy Melton as the other likely members of the rotation, a Skubal trade would open up a major need for the Tigers on the mound.