The importance of ace pitcher Tarik Skubal to the Detroit Tigers was on full display during May, during which he was unavailable after undergoing a surgical procedure to remove a loose body from his throwing arm.
During May, the Tigers won a mere six games and tumbled to the bottom of the American League Central Division standings. Despite managing to put together a modest winning streak to begin June, they’ve fallen back on hard times, having dropped five of their last seven games. Right now, the Tigers occupy the last-place spot in their division with a subpar 30-44 record through 74 games.
This doesn’t bode well for the future of Skubal with the Tigers, who have the chance to become a free agent after this season. And with the MLB Trade Deadline not terribly far off, there’s a chance that Tigers executive Scott Harris will be faced with the difficult decision of moving on from one of the best pitchers that the organization has produced.
Detroit Tigers Ace Tarik Skubal States The Obvious After Their Latest Loss
The Tigers, who dropped two of three games to the Houston Astros on the road, aren’t in a favorable position in the standings and would miss the MLB playoffs by a wide margin if they were to begin today.
Following the series loss to the Astros, Skubal stated the obvious – the club needs to play better, or there could be changes in store.
“The reality is we need to play better baseball or else come the deadline, you give the front office an option to reassess where this team is,” Skubal told The Detroit News earlier this week in a story published Thursday. “And if they don’t think what we have is a World Series- or playoff-caliber team, then the whole team is going to look different. That’s just the nature of the beast.”
Skubal continued:
“The future for a lot of people in this room — not just myself — the outlook could look very much different in two months and it all comes to an abrupt end,” he said. “We still control our destiny a little bit. We still do.
“We play the team this weekend that’s winning our division. It’s another big series. You don’t want to be playing playoff baseball in June, but it feels like we’re playing playoff baseball. We don’t have very much room for error and everyone understands that. Everyone understands there has to be a sense of urgency. There has to be. Not panic. But there has to be a sense of urgency to try to win every game we play.”
Skubal and the Tigers host the Chicago White Sox at Comerica Park for a three-game set starting on Friday evening.
Is Tarik Skubal Thinking About The Trade Deadline?
With the MLB Trade Deadline less than two months away, how much is Skubal thinking about the possibility of being dealt away?
“I don’t think about it a lot,” Skubal said of the trade deadline. “I try not to let that consume me because I need to worry about what I’m doing today. … But there’s also the reality part to it. Everybody, the whole room, needs to focus on winning tonight’s game, winning a series, winning the next series and just let it snowball.”
Tarik Skubal Gets Brutally Honest After Latest Tigers Loss