When one of the biggest stars in baseball isn’t one of the biggest teams, it’s natural for trade talks to come out. The idea of Tarik Skubal being traded has been brought up quite a bit, and the Minnesota Twins seem like a potential option.
Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report wrote an article called “Pitching Wild MLB Trade Ideas for 2025-26 Offseason” which included Skubal to the Twins.
In that article Miller wrote that, “The prevailing sentiment in the aftermath of its approach to the trade deadline this past summer is that Minnesota will continue selling off key pieces this winter…imagine instead a rotation of Skubal, Ryan, López, Bailey Ober and Taj Bradley, with Simeon Woods Richardson, Mick Abel, Zebby Matthews and David Festa”
There’s no doubt that this rotation would be elite as the Twins look to bounce back from their 70-92 record last year. While Miller acknowledges that this deal is unlikely, we’ll break it down in more detail to see if it would make any sense for either the Twins or Detroit Tigers.
This is a PREDICTION, not a REPORT.
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Detroit Tigers Trading Tarik Skubal to the Minnesota Twins
In regard to the Tigers trading Skubal, the idea behind that is that he becomes a free agent in 2027 (per Spotrac). It’s hard to see a world where the Tigers can compete with a team like the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Dodgers for Skubal, who will likely be the best player on the market by a mile.
For that reason, it’s not crazy for fans to want the Tigers to trade Skubal while they can rather than letting him go for nothing. It’s all going to depend on the return because the Tigers have a legitimate shot to contend next year as well.
In Miller’s article, he discusses the mock trade that he created.
“Detroit Tigers send LHP Tarik Skubal to Minnesota Twins for OF Walker Jenkins, LHP Kendry Rojas and LHP Connor Prielipp”
For the Tigers, this is really not a bad trade at all, as they get some top-end prospects in return for Skubal. At the same time, though, that would essentially eliminate the Tigers from making a run in 2026 because these prospects need time to develop.
Coming off the back of an 87-75 season, the Tigers might not be willing to do that unless the offer is so good it doesn’t even make sense for the other team.
Does Tarik Skubal Fit with the Minnesota Twins?
For the Twins, it’s hard to see why they would make this move. They’re in the middle of a rebuilding phase, and they’re not any more likely to keep Skubal past this year.
Coming off a 70-92 season, it seems clear that even if the pitching staff is good, this roster doesn’t have the talent yet to make a legitimate playoff run. It wouldn’t be shocking if Skubal was traded, but heading to Minnesota would be quite surprising.
Tarik Skubal Contract
As we talked about above, Skubal’s contract has him becoming a free agent in 2027. Right now, Skubal has 27,214,656 dollars in career earnings per Spotrac, but you can expect that number to jump up drastically once he hits the open market.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, this may be their last year with Skubal. For that reason, entertaining a trade isn’t a bad idea, but it’s hard to see the Minnesota Twins being the ones to make that move.