{"id":509245,"date":"2026-01-07T06:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/509245\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T06:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:36:18","slug":"tarik-skubal-expected-to-be-at-2026-detroit-tigers-spring-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/509245\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarik Skubal expected to be at 2026 Detroit Tigers spring training"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tarik Skubal throws the football after Lions crushing loss to Steelers<\/p>\n

Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws passes at Ford Field in Detroit, after the Lions’ 29-24 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dec. 21, 2025.<\/p>\n

Tarik Skubal<\/a> will be in TigerTown.<\/p>\n

At least, that’s the expectation, five weeks out.<\/p>\n

Skubal is expected to be in spring training with the Detroit Tigers<\/a> when it opens Feb. 11, ESPN’s Buster Olney wrote Tuesday, Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

“Detroit has set a very high price tag on the lefty, and the expectation within the organization is that Skubal will be in their camp at the outset of spring training,” Olney reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Tigers are\u00a0listening to trade offers<\/a>\u00a0for Skubal \u2212 there are no untouchables, president of baseball operations Scott Harris said this winter \u2212 but a trade seems unlikely right now.<\/p>\n

Celebrate 125 years of Tigers baseball!<\/a><\/p>\n

Skubal \u2013\u00a0lined up to receive nearly $20 million in his final year of salary arbitration at Thursday’s deadline \u2013 plans to report Feb. 11 to TigerTown in Lakeland, Florida, when pitchers and catchers arrive for spring training.<\/p>\n

“I love the city of Detroit,” Skubal said<\/a> Nov. 12 before winning the 2025 American League Cy Young. “Hopefully, I’m here. I think that’s where I’m at with all that.”<\/p>\n

Skubal \u2013 represented by agent\u00a0Scott Boras<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 projects to become\u00a0the first pitcher in MLB history to receive $400 million in free agency<\/a>, but only if the Tigers let him reach the open market after the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

There’s no reason to believe, thus far, an extension is coming. Only Tigers owner Christopher Ilitch can make that happen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

BEST PACKAGE: Tarik Skubal trades: What 5 teams could offer Detroit Tigers<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesse Rogers, in ESPN’s bold predictions for MLB<\/a> in 2026, predicted the Tigers would trade Skubal in July to the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rogers wrote the potential new economic landscape starting in 2027 and rarity of a three-peat will have the Dodgers pushing all-in for another title in 2026.<\/p>\n

“They can even afford to trade for Skubal as a rental if the move leads them to a third straight championship, whereas just about any other team would need to immediately sign him to a long-term deal in order to justify giving up the prospects it will undoubtedly take to land a back-to-back Cy Young Award winner,” Rogers wrote. “If the Tigers fall out of the race, L.A. simply makes too much sense as a landing spot for Skubal \u2212 that is assuming he’s not traded in the coming weeks.”<\/p>\n

In a poll conducted on freep.com<\/a> in mid-October garnering 3,802 votes over two days, 61.52% of respondents (2,339) voted to “trade Skubal this offseason before he leaves for nothing.” Just 12.26% (466 votes) voted to “play it out to the 2026 trade deadline,” while 26.22% (997 votes) wanted to “keep Skubal and hope to re-sign him after the 2026 season.”<\/p>\n

The Tigers plan to have a starting pitching rotation<\/a> of Skubal, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, Reese Olson and Troy Melton, with backups Drew Anderson,\u00a0Sawyer Gipson-Long,\u00a0Keider Montero\u00a0and\u00a0Ty Madden, plus\u00a0Jackson Jobe\u00a0at some point in the second half upon\u00a0his return from Tommy John surgery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TRENDING: 3 priorities for Detroit Tigers in 2026, including George Springer<\/a><\/p>\n

Free Press sports writer Evan Petzold contributed.<\/p>\n

Listen to our weekly Tigers show\u00a0“Days of Roar”<\/a>\u00a0every Monday afternoon during the season and Tuesday afternoon during the offseason on\u00a0Apple<\/a>,\u00a0Spotify<\/a>\u00a0or wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tarik Skubal throws the football after Lions crushing loss to Steelers Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws passes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2386],"tags":[683,290,5,9409,681,680,693,481,147,53,2583,39,649,691,438,1921,1371,676,1912,289,57,4,306,319,846,169,682,300,850,1911,1064,810,954,185,317,953,382,1913,594,2362,11204],"class_list":["post-509245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-tigers","tag-affiliate","tag-angeles","tag-baseball","tag-boras","tag-commerce","tag-contains","tag-contains-commerce-or-affiliate-content","tag-content","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-detroittigers","tag-dodgers","tag-espn","tag-espn-inc","tag-exclude","tag-exclude-from-paywall-logic-testing","tag-from","tag-inc","tag-logic","tag-los","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb","tag-national","tag-national-sports","tag-neutral","tag-news","tag-or","tag-overall","tag-overall-neutral","tag-paywall","tag-scott","tag-scott-boras","tag-skubal","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-tarik","tag-tarik-skubal","tag-testing","tag-tigers","tag-trending","tag-trending-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}