Will Tigers trade Tarik Skubal before free agency? MLB insider speaks
USA TODAY Sports baseball insider Bob Nightengale joins “Days of Roar” podcast to answer several questions about Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal, who can become a free agent after the 2026 season.
Tarik Skubal has never played for Team USA.
That’s about to change.
The reigning back-to-back American League Cy Young winner will represent Team USA for the first time in his life during the 2026 World Baseball Classic. The Detroit Tigers left-hander announced his decision Dec. 18 to accept an offer from general manager Michael Hill and manager Mark DeRosa.
It was an eight-month recruitment process.
“I called Tarik in April,” DeRosa said Dec. 9 at the MLB Winter Meetings, exactly nine days before Skubal’s commitment. “I’ve been very respectful to the season. I know, if I was a player of that ilk, I would not want to be getting blown up by the manager of Team USA while I’m trying to win a World Series. Just every once in a while, a text – a ‘Hey, I’m thinking about you’ kind of deal.”
Both DeRosa and Hill talked to Skubal on Nov. 13 at the MLB Awards at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
At the event, Skubal was named to the All-MLB First Team as one of five starting pitcher selections – joined by Paul Skenes (Pittsburgh Pirates), Garrett Crochet (Boston Red Sox), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Los Angeles Dodgers) and Max Fried (New York Yankees).
Skenes and Skubal, the 2025 Cy Young winners, are committed to Team USA.
They’re the best pitchers in the world.
“We’ve been honest that it’s an honor to put the red, white and blue across your chest,” Hill said Dec. 9 at the Winter Meetings, reflecting on what he pitched to Skubal at the MLB Awards. “How many times as a player do you get that opportunity? I think that’s what we really tried to impress upon every player that we’re talking to. It’s an honor to don that uniform. We’re hopeful that America’s best wants to be a part of that.”
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The 2026 WBC runs from March 5-17.
Twenty teams are involved.
Team USA will compete in Pool B at Daikin Park in Houston, alongside Mexico, Italy, Great Britain and Brazil, with the Americans’ first game scheduled for March 6 against Brazil. The top two teams from each of four pools will advance to the single-elimination bracket, with the championship game set for March 17 at loanDepot Park in Miami.
Only twice has Team USA reached the championship game in the five iterations of the WBC, losing to Team Japan in 2023 and winning over Team Puerto Rico in 2017. In the other three events, Team USA finished eighth in 2006, fourth in 2008 and sixth in 2013.
“It’s a special tournament,” Hill said, “and we want our best to help us complete the job.”
In 2024-25, Skubal posted a 2.30 ERA with a 4.5% walk rate and 31.2% strikeout rate across 387â…“ innings in 62 starts. The 29-year-old led the AL with a 2.39 ERA in 2024 and a 2.21 ERA in 2025.
It’s easy to understand why Skubal projects to become the first pitcher in MLB history to receive a $400 million contract when he becomes a free agent after the 2026 season.
DeRosa admires Skubal’s presence on the mound.
He especially likes when Skubal registers an inning-ending strikeout with a high-velocity fastball or a nearly unhittable changeup, then celebrates in trademark fashion by pounding his fist into his glove, shouting an expletive and backpedaling off the mound.
“The biggest thing for me, getting to know Tarik and then watching him, he really leans into his stuff,” said DeRosa, a 16-year MLB veteran who works for MLB Network as a studio analyst. “He leans into being an entertainer. He soaks in the moment – something that very few big leaguers can do because they’re so nervous. He is past all that. I just love watching him compete because there’s fun. There’s like a backyard Wiffle ball style to the way he goes about it that I truly like.”
Hill, meanwhile, is a fan of Skubal’s bulldog mentality.
In 2025, Skubal averaged 6.3 innings per games started, ranking third – behind only Crochet and Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Cristopher Sánchez – among 117 pitchers with at least 20 starts, though his average of 92 pitches per start ranked 28th.
“It’s almost like a throwback,” said Hill, a former executive with the Miami Marlins who works for MLB as senior vice president of on-field operations. “He wants the ball, and he wants to give it back to the umpire at the end of the game. His intent, when he steps on the mound, is to finish that game. It’s refreshing to see that someone of his ability doesn’t want to come out of the game, whatever the situation.”
The Tigers are prepared for Skubal’s participation in the WBC.
To ensure health and effectiveness, the Tigers plan to keep Skubal on his individualized schedule in preparation for the regular season throughout the WBC experience, so don’t be surprised if the Tigers place strict restrictions on his pitch count and innings during the tournament.
Pitchers report to spring training Feb. 11, the WBC takes place over two weeks in March, and Opening Day is March 26.
“He’s earned that honor to represent his country, given everything he’s done,” Tigers general manager Jeff Greenberg said Dec. 22. “There will be a plan in place to make sure that he stays on his schedule and is in a good spot heading into spring training and the WBC and coming out of the WBC back into camp, but obviously, we’re excited for him. It’s a very cool opportunity.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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