The MLB Winter Meetings are a couple of weeks away, and that’s when the hot stove heats up. Free agents tend to find a new home during that week, and with teams’ front offices all in the same place, trade talks heat up.
There are going to be a lot of teams that are going to keep tabs on what the Detroit Tigers decide to do with ace left-handed pitcher Tarik Skubal. Will the Tigers trade Skubal, or will they keep him? You can bet some of the top teams are going to check in.
Unless Detroit is completely blown away by a deal from a team, they are best to run it back with Skubal next season, but that didn’t stop Mark Feinsand of MLB.com from listing Skubal as the Tigers’ top potential trade candidate this offseason.
Tarik Skubal Listed as Tigers Top Trade Candidate This Offseason
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Reports surfaced recently that Skubal and the Tigers were very far apart in contract extension talks. That is not great, considering the southpaw is eligible for free agency after 2026. Detroit can’t lose him for nothing if he walks, but they have to get the right package in return if they do trade him.
“Is Detroit planning on trading the two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner? Probably not. But there are few players in the game who will receive more trade buzz than Skubal, who is entering his final year before free agency. The Tigers will likely resist the temptation to trade him, but if they decide to dangle him out there, the offers they receive could make them think twice,” Feinsand wrote.
After falling short in the American League Division Series to the Seattle Mariners, it should serve as motivation for the Tigers to load up this offseason for another run in 2026 as a contender. Trading Skubal would go against that.
If they were to trade him and replace him in free agency, the options are getting thin for a top-of-the-rotation arm. Dylan Cease is going to the Toronto Blue Jays, which leaves Houston Astros’ left-hander Framber Valdez as the next best option.
Former MLB general manager Jim Bowden revealed that the next offer Detroit has to bring to Skubal needs to be in the $350 million range. That is a much higher amount than what they reportedly offered him recently. If they don’t, things could get dicey, and if that is the case, and they are blown away with a deal, do they make it? Whatever the decision is, it could be a franchise-altering decision on the horizon for the front office.
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