Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal knows the trade questions will keep coming. That doesn't mean he has to like answering them.
"That's so out of my control," he said about trade speculation before the series opener against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday, July 23. "I just want to start and go out there competing and trying to win as many baseball games for the Detroit Tigers. That's my focus."
With the Aug. 3 trade deadline fast approaching, and Skubal topping the list of potential trade targets – perhaps as the most coveted deadline target in years – it's not a surprise that people keep wondering how the Tigers will handle a potential deal with the back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner. After all, the Tigers could keep Skubal for
the rest of the 2026 season instead of trading him, which Skubal on Thursday reiterated would be his preference.
"I think we have a chance to win a World Series. I've had that thought since spring training. That has never changed," he said. "Throughout the season, we put ourselves in a tough situation. But I think we've come out of that tough situation playing really good baseball."
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who arguably faces even more questions about a potential Skubal trade than Skubal himself, seemed equally unwilling on Thursday to acknowledge the possibility of playing the last two months of the season without his ace pitcher.
"I just don't spend my time wrapping my head around it," he said. "There's a lot of intrigue around him, and the reason is because he's really good. He can really impact the team, and he's ours. And I think for this team to try to continue to take one step forward and not get consumed by it has been a real challenge, and I think our team has responded really well based on how we're playing."
If the Tigers want to keep Skubal, they'll need to continue playing well and stacking wins. Detroit is fourth in the AL Central standings and likely won't catch the first-place Chicago White Sox by the trade deadline. The Tigers have a smaller deficit to overcome in the AL wild-card standings but more teams to hop, with the FanGraphs playoff odds giving the Tigers a slightly better chance to win the division than clinch a wild-card spot as of Thursday.
But it wouldn't take much losing for the Tigers to fall further from contention during this end-of-July stretch, which would only ramp up speculation that Skubal's final start with Detroit is fast approaching.
Skubal has said he wants to stay with the Tigers, but a trade away from Detroit could potentially land him on a contender with a better chance of winning the World Series than the Tigers do (at 2.6% as of Thursday per those FanGraphs odds). Though Skubal acknowledges that reality, he has already been in situations where the Tigers have overcome long odds – most recently with the 2024 Tigers team that mounted a historic late-season comeback to make the postseason.
"I don't know if I believe in the odds," he said. "I've been on a team where we had a 0.2% chance to make the playoffs, and we did it. So I'm not going to speculate on percentages. I think once we get there, it's really hard to win a World Series. You just gotta get in [to the playoffs], and I think this team has all the pieces to be able to do that."
Javier Báez, Jackson Jobe injury updates
The Tigers are closer to getting back two key players, with shortstop Javier Báez playing in a rehab game in Low-A Lakeland on Thursday with plans for him to play for Triple-A Toledo over the weekend, per Hinch. Báez has been out since April 28 with an ankle injury after being carted off the field in a 5-2 loss against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park in Atlanta
Additionally, starting pitcher Jackson Jobe will get a rehab start for Double-A Erie over the weekend. Jobe has made three rehab starts in his comeback from Tommy John surgery, most recently pitching three innings for Erie on July 19.
The Tigers drafted Jobe at the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, with the righty entering the 2025 season as the No. 3 overall prospect in baseball, per Baseball America. His rookie season was short-lived, however, with Jobe pitching to a 4.22 ERA over 49 innings in 2025 before being shut down for the rest of the season in early June.
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tarik Skubal says he'd prefer to stay with Tigers past trade deadline
