LAS VEGAS — Award-winning players, team executives, powerful agents and Major League Baseball officials gathered this week inside the upscale towers of The Cosmopolitan on the Las Vegas Strip. As they roamed the lobby, huddled in conference rooms and hung out on the casino floor, the business of baseball appeared to be booming.
An ongoing gambling scandal and the threat of an owners’ lockout after the 2026 season did not turn off the Hot Stove. Coming off an epic World Series, with surging TV ratings and another influx of international talent ahead, the baseball industry features no shortage of intrigue.
For starters, back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal remains the subject of rampant trade speculation, even among baseball officials. The sport’s annual general managers meetings ended Thursday with more questions than answers about what the Detroit Tigers are going to do with their homegrown ace.
A handful of representatives from different teams said the Tigers are telling them that they prefer to hold onto Skubal, who is widely regarded as one of the best two or three pitchers on the planet, and is eligible to become a free agent after this coming season. Some executives, however, expressed skepticism, wondering if that could simply be posturing or a negotiation tactic to raise the ante.
To get a better feel for the situation, The Athletic polled a cross section of team officials, who gave equal and opposite reactions.
How could they trade Skubal?
How could they not trade Skubal?
The Athletic granted team officials anonymity so they could speak openly about Skubal and the Tigers.
“I have no idea what they should do,” a National League executive said with a laugh. “I guess it all depends on what the goals are. That’s where you’d start. And if the goal is to compete for the playoffs, be competitive each year, then you can actually make a case either way, though it’s obviously making things harder on yourself to achieve that by taking the best pitcher in the league off your roster.”
An AL executive offered a more straightforward assessment: “That roster is not going to be good enough to make the playoffs, let alone go anywhere further than that, without Tarik Skubal.”
The architect of the Tigers is Scott Harris, a 30-something-year-old executive who was hired as president of baseball operations near the end of a 96-loss season in 2022. He inherited a proven manager in A.J. Hinch, as well as several talented young players who needed more time to develop.
The Tigers would become a well-prepared, versatile team that embraced “pitching chaos” and platoon advantages. Of course, with Skubal, everything runs more efficiently. Detroit went 42-20 in the left-hander’s 62 starts across the past two seasons, which have produced back-to-back playoff appearances and two Cy Young Awards.
The Tigers, though, remain focused on long-term sustainability. That goal becomes even more realistic in the AL Central, arguably MLB’s weakest division. It’s possible that Harris could read the market and try to stock up for 2026 and beyond.
“The class of starter free agents is mediocre,” a high-ranking NL official said. “So that makes the acquisition cost here even higher. It’s a huge move for him, but it’s also something that he probably understands he needs to do right now.”
Does he? Really? The Tigers do not spend like the New York Mets or Los Angeles Dodgers. But they shouldn’t operate like the Tampa Bay Rays, either.
“Hell no, they shouldn’t,” an AL executive said. “They’re not among the lowest-budget teams. Or at least they shouldn’t be. They should be keeping him, spending more money and going for it.”
Among colleagues, Harris is known as a good listener and connector, someone who can shepherd ideas through various departments and formulate well-executed plans, a reputation he gained while climbing the ladder with the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants.
Among rival executives, Harris can also be regarded as a difficult negotiator, someone who tries to extract maximum value even from smaller deals. That is, of course, part of the job description, for both Harris and Skubal’s high-profile agent, Scott Boras.
As is tradition, Boras staged his own press conference during the GM meetings, holding court with the assembled media in front of a backdrop covered with his agency’s logo. When asked about Skubal’s future, Boras’ references ranged from referencing an old cartoon to the pizza chain founded by the Ilitch family, owner of the Tigers.
“All we know is that the fans in Detroit want the Tigers to build a Tarik barrack,” Boras said. “Little Caesars are running around town saying, ‘Cy! Cy!’ It’s the kind of thing where he’s built a base. Obviously, everywhere they go, they know it’s Skubal Day. They understand that organization is substantially different if he’s not there.
“In these situations … we hear mostly from the fans, and the player hears from the fans, and it’s kind of like it should be ‘Skooby-Done,’ right? And if not, I think the fans would certainly think it’s a Detroit doink.”
In the follow-up to his first Cy Young season, Skubal tossed 195 1/3 innings over 31 starts, striking out 241 batters along the way. (Grace Hoppel / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The presence of Boras is a complicating factor for any team dreaming about acquiring Skubal this winter. Historically, the agent advises his clients to establish their values on the open market, rather than signing contract extensions. Skubal is also scheduled to become a free agent just before the current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire, adding another uncertain variable to the equation.
“Our point of view is we always listen,” Boras said. “We’re prepared to listen to anything Chris (Ilitch) or Scott has to say. We’ll just see how it goes.”
Even without making a deal this winter, multiple executives predicted the Tigers could carry Skubal into the season and still receive an equivalent return at the trade deadline next summer. It’s not like trying to trade a shortstop or a left fielder to one of the few teams looking to fill those positions in the middle of the season.
When every contending team is always looking for more pitching to make it through October, the demand will remain high.
And there is only one Skubal, whose enormous ability makes it hard to imagine the Tigers falling out of contention in the AL Central while he’s pitching for them at this level.
“I think a lot of that is out of my control, especially the trade stuff,” Skubal said on Wednesday’s conference call following the Cy Young Award announcement. “Obviously, contract extension stuff is a little bit different. But the trade stuff is out of my control. I’ve given everything I have to this organization, and I want to be a Tiger for a very long time. But those things, the business part of the game, they’re just different, right?”