Everyone's defending the Tarik Skubal trade from the Detroit Tigers to the Los Angeles Dodgers these days -- mostly, it's everyone who's involved in it, including Skubal himself.
And that now includes Tigers president Scott Harris, who had a lot to say about the deal as the 2026 MLB trade deadline came to a close on Monday night.
You can read his entire response below, but the highlights included what he had to say when it came to dealing a superstar like Skubal.
"Markets at the deadline for the top players are just different than the rest of the market," he said. "So I understand the intuition that, 'Hey, you're supposed to wait until the very last second on a deal and then pull a trigger at the very last second to maximize a return."
"That's now
how markets for top players work," he added.
Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris was asked today about the notion that he should have waited in order to maximize the return on Tarik Skubal. Here’s what he said … pic.twitter.com/PS3KTfE0Pw
— Alden González (@Alden_Gonzalez) August 4, 2026
His point about how the market was likely waiting for a Skubal deal to be struck before moving on to Plan B or C. Which makes some sense! Not sure this will help Tigers fans feel better, but it's something.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Tigers president defends Tarik Skubal trade in lengthy breakdown: 'I'm very confident'
