The Detroit Tigers may be headed for more than a simple deadline sell-off. Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel’s latest top 50 MLB trade candidates list puts Tarik Skubal right at the top, and the ripple effect could be a full-blown teardown that changes the American League Central picture.
Skubal was listed No. 1 overall, with an 85% chance of being traded. For a Tigers team that has hovered around the division race without ever fully grabbing it, that kind of name at the top of the market says plenty. Detroit enters play today at 40-50, sitting 7 1/2 games back in the division and five games out of the Wild Card with six teams ahead of them.
And Skubal isn’t the only Tiger drawing attention. Passan and McDaniel also included Casey Mize, Gleyber Torres, Jack Flaherty, Kenley Jansen, Drew Anderson, Justin Verlander and Zach McKinstry on the list. That’s eight Detroit players in all, a group that looked like veteran support when the season began and now reads like a deadline inventory.
A Skubal move would obviously slam the door on whatever faint contention hopes Detroit still has. But with the left-hander headed toward free agency, the logic is easy to see: if the Tigers deal him now, they could land a massive prospect return.
Mize is another name to watch. He may not carry Skubal’s profile, but he was an All-Star last season and has put together a 2.64 ERA over 71 2/3 innings this year.
His season has included two trips to the injured list, including nearly a month lost between May and June because of a strained groin. Even so, he came back in the middle of last month and has allowed just a 1.32 ERA across his last two starts, covering 13 2/3 innings.
He’s also an impending free agent and is making just $6.15 million, which makes him a more affordable trade piece than Skubal.
Flaherty is in the same contract bucket as an impending free agent, though his value is different. He’s in the middle of his second straight underwhelming season, so he likely wouldn’t bring back a huge return. Still, moving him would clear a roster spot and give Detroit a chance to see what it has in a younger player.
For Guardians fans, the bigger takeaway is what this could mean if Detroit really does start pulling pieces off the board. Last year, Cleveland handled the Tigers in the regular season before falling to them in the Wild Card Series, with Skubal’s Game 1 performance playing a major role. If this is the end of his run in a Tigers uniform, that could have been his last defining moment against the Guardians as a member of Detroit.
In Other News...
Guardians Suddenly Have A First Base Decision Fans Cant Ignore
Ralphy Velazquez keeps making it harder for the Guardians to ignore him. The 21-year-old first base prospect has reached base in 30 straight games for Triple-A Columbus, and his .876 OPS across two minor league levels has only strengthened the case that Cleveland may already have a real internal answer brewing at a spot that has drawn plenty of attention.
For a club still sorting out first base, Velazquezs rise adds another layer to the front offices late-season thinking. Drafted 23rd overall in 2023, he is young enough that the organization can still be patient, but productive enough that a promotion no longer feels like a distant idea. If Cleveland does look outside the system for help, his performance is the kind of development that can shape how aggressively the Guardians approach the market. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Trade Deadline Focus May Be Bigger Than Fans Expected
The Guardians have steadied themselves with consecutive wins and are hanging close in the AL Central, but the bigger question around the club is what kind of help they will chase before the trade deadline. Clevelands offense has been thinned by injuries and uneven production, and the front office is being pushed to weigh upgrades that go beyond a simple bat-for-bat move.
What has emerged is a broader shopping list than some fans may have expected, with the team looking at a right-handed hitting first baseman and pitching depth to help stabilize the roster. There is also interest in adding outfield help, which would give Cleveland more ways to cover for the lineup issues that have made every run matter in a tight division race. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Fans Just Got Another Reason To Revisit The Bailey Trade
The Patrick Bailey trade already looked like the kind of move the Guardians could circle back to for years, and the latest layer only adds to the intrigue. Cleveland sent pitching prospect Matt Wilkinson and a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick to the Giants for the catcher, a deal that was always going to be judged on how Bailey held up behind the plate and how the rest of the package played out on the other side.
Wilkinson has since moved through Double-A and Triple-A with mixed results, while the draft pick the Giants received turned into high school left-hander Carson Bolemon. For Cleveland, though, the more immediate question has been whether Bailey can keep providing the kind of defensive stability that makes a trade like this easier to live with, especially when the long-term value of the prospect and pick can still swing the final verdict. [Read more 🡒]