DETROIT — All along, the whispers and the rumors and the chaos-inducing posts on social media were just noise.
The Detroit Tigers were never seriously likely to trade Tarik Skubal, their homegrown left-hander who has blossomed into a full-fledged ace and one of the best pitchers in baseball.
Although they fielded some calls, they were never close on a deal. The asking price would have been sky-high. Other teams, most notably the Baltimore Orioles, were never willing to pay the sort of premium Skubal’s value would have demanded.
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“Not close,” Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris confirmed Tuesday, an hour after the trade deadline passed. “There were a lot of rumors that floated out there. There were a lot of unconfirmed reports that are just totally inaccurate. We never came close to trading Skubal.”
But have we really heard the last of Skubal trade talks? Let’s be real. Skubal is under team control for the rest of this season and the ensuing two years. As long as the Tigers remain on the fringes, his name will get floated around the league.
How the Tigers fare in the second half, and how Harris actually views the team’s timeline to contention, could determine whether we go through this all over again this winter.
Far-fetched as it seemed for a midseason deal, did Harris at least find the idea of trading Skubal for a massive return tempting?
“I can’t really comment on that,” he said.
What comes next?
The path forward was a large topic at Harris’ post-deadline news conference, the first time he has spoken on the record to local media since Opening Day. The Tigers this year have shown signs of growth and also endured frustrating bouts of futility. Harris has never been entirely clear about whether he views the Tigers as still in a rebuild or whether their competitive window is close to opening. That is not going to change, but we can deduce from many of Harris’ actions and a few of his words that he is still taking a patient, long-game approach.
“We are working as hard as we can to make (contending) happen as fast as we can,” Harris said. “However, we can’t just snap our fingers to make it happen. We can’t just go chase some shortcuts to make sure that we are here a year from now buying at the deadline. Because sometimes when you do that, sometimes when you try to grab those shortcuts, you end up being like a comet of an organization. In a flash, maybe we can achieve (buying) in July of next year, but at what cost? Does that mean there’s another 10-year run of selling at the deadline? No, we’re going to try to build this the right way.”
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Interesting arms in smaller deals
For more evidence of this approach, look at what the Tigers acquired in their smaller moves. You can read all about the Jack Flaherty trade here. Detroit traded Carson Kelly, Andrew Chafin and Mark Canha and received four young pitchers and one organizational depth catcher in return.
Pitchers including Joseph Montalvo, Tyler Owens and Chase Lee (all from the Texas Rangers) and Eric Silva (from the San Francisco Giants) all have hints of high-end stuff. Of these arms, Montalvo has the best chance to become a starter at the major-league level.
6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 6 K yesterday for Joseph Montalvo.
Montalvo has a 2.77 ERA in his first 6 starts and 26 IP this season. pic.twitter.com/RwKqQ5YJyp
— Rangers Player Development (@TEXPlayerDev) May 19, 2024
“Montalvo is a really interesting young arm who’s already striking out a lot of guys and has already flashed the shapes that we feel like we can continue to help develop in this organization,” Harris said. “We feel like there’s a lot of growth for him. We love the delivery. We love the athlete. We love the performance that he’s had in his young career. We think he still has a ton of opportunity moving forward.”
Still, Montalvo and the rest could also profile as solid major-league relief pitchers with a few of the right improvements. The Tigers traded players on expiring deals — Chafin had a team option at season’s end — for a collection of lower-profile, high-upside arms. Might this be how they construct the bullpen of the future?
More moves not made
The Tigers did not trade infielder Gio Urshela despite him being on an expiring deal. Urshela’s 68 OPS+ this season likely meant few teams had interest. If there was not going to be a worthwhile trade, the Tigers also wanted to keep Urshela around to help fill their first base void for the rest of the season. Regarding Spencer Torkelson, Harris said he is still a part of the organization’s future, but it’s also clear he still has work to do in Triple A, where he is hitting .247 with an .805 OPS.
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Detroit also held on to relief pitcher Shelby Miller, who has a 4.35 ERA this season and hasn’t been able to replicate the resurgence he had last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Miller, though, has been pitching better as of late, surrendering only one earned run in 13 1/3 innings in July. He has a team option after the season, and if he can finish strong, perhaps the Tigers could see more value in fixing Miller and bringing him back next year than they found on the trade market.
Who is going to pitch the rest of the season?
Harris and manager A.J. Hinch had breakfast together Wednesday morning to sort through the new elephant in the room: What in the world are they going to do about their pitching for the rest of the season?
With Flaherty traded, Casey Mize on the 60-day injured list and Reese Olson also hurt, Skubal and Keider Montero are the Tigers’ lone remaining starting pitchers. Tyler Holton has started three bullpen games for the Tigers in the past seven days, all against the Cleveland Guardians. Detroit overall has turned to bullpen days in four of its past six games, an incredibly taxing period that could have consequences for the rest of the season.
“I’ve been happy with our bullpen days,” Hinch said, “but you pay the price eventually if you do a bunch of them.”
Still, the Tigers seem resistant to bringing in arms from outside the organization.
“There aren’t major-league caliber pitchers that are just lying or standing out in the street,” Hinch said last week.
Kenta Maeda could be a candidate to rejoin the rotation. Bryan Sammons, who pitched 7 1/3 innings in his MLB debut, may stick around in some capacity. Particularly after the trade deadline cleared spots on the 40-man roster, Triple-A pitchers such as Lael Lockhart, Brenan Hanifee, Brant Hurter and others could get a shot to start games for the Tigers over the next month.
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Thursday, we will learn how exactly the Tigers plan to fill their serious pitching voids.
“I agree we need to add more starter innings,” Harris said. “We’re going to add them internally.”
One player who is not getting the call? Top pitching prospect Jackson Jobe.
Jobe has a 1.41 ERA and 11.7 K/9 in Double A, but after missing time with a hamstring injury earlier in the year, he has thrown only 38 1/3 innings at that level this season.
“Jackson is gonna go to Triple A before he goes to Detroit,” Harris said “We have seen a lot of examples in pitchers around the league and in this organization who dominated Double A and then faced some adversity in Triple A. … We kind of owe Jackson the opportunity to face those struggles, if they exist at all, test his stuff and command and pitchability against Triple-A hitters before he gets to Detroit.”
(Photo of Tarik Skubal: Duane Burleson / Getty Images)
Cody Stavenhagen is a staff writer covering the Detroit Tigers and Major League Baseball for The Athletic. Previously, he covered Michigan football at The Athletic and Oklahoma football and basketball for the Tulsa World, where he was named APSE Beat Writer of the Year for his circulation group in 2016. He is a native of Amarillo, Texas. Follow Cody on Twitter @CodyStavenhagen
