Tarik Skubal’s place in Tigers history was already messy, and his latest admission only makes it harder for fans to sort out how they feel about him.
The two-time Cy Young winner is still in Detroit, but the relationship between Skubal and the fan base has clearly cooled. For plenty of Tigers supporters, this has become a slow unraveling - part disappointment, part frustration, part resignation - and it’s not hard to see why.
According to Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic, Skubal said he first realized something was off with his elbow as early as January. That’s the kind of detail that lands with a thud.
“If I could go back, I probably should have got an MRI in January and hammered it out to where I was done with it in the offseason,” he said. “But there were also other factors in play.
I was going through arbitration. The decision by the organization to take me to court, I think that probably had some impact subconsciously.”
That’s a brutal quote for Tigers fans to absorb. Skubal is essentially saying he knew there was an issue, but didn’t fully address it then, and that arbitration was part of the backdrop. Whether fans hear that as hesitation, self-protection, or something worse, it’s not the kind of explanation that makes anyone feel better.
The timing is what stings most. If he knew in January, then the idea that he could have handled the issue in the offseason becomes impossible to ignore. And if arbitration played any role in how he dealt with it, that only adds another layer of irritation for a fan base already trying to make peace with where this relationship is headed.
There are still Tigers fans who want to believe the best about Skubal. He’s the most talented pitcher Detroit has produced since Justin Verlander, and he matters to the team and the city. But his insistence about wanting to stay in Detroit for the rest of the season, no matter what, doesn’t carry quite the same weight after this.
For fans, that’s the hard part: wanting to hold onto the player, while struggling with the way this has unfolded.
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