Tarik Skubal’s pitch count is turning into one of the most uncomfortable side stories for Tigers fans watching him with the Dodgers.
In his first three starts since landing in Los Angeles, Skubal has looked solid enough, even if he has not been quite as crisp as the version Detroit fans got used to seeing. His second outing was the roughest of the bunch: 95 pitches across five innings and three runs allowed.
Then on Aug. 22, he turned in a much longer outing, going seven innings against the Pirates while throwing 106 pitches. He allowed three runs, struck out 11, and got the win as his offense backed him up.
What stands out to Detroit is how freely Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has been willing to use him. Skubal’s 109-pitch outing in his third start for Los Angeles was a career high, and Saturday’s 106-pitch performance was his second-highest total of the season. With the Tigers, AJ Hinch never let him get beyond 96 pitches this year.
That difference invites two very different readings. One is simple enough: Roberts may just be more willing than Hinch to let trusted starters work deeper into games. The other is harder for Tigers fans to swallow - that Skubal himself is pushing those totals because he knows exactly what kind of offseason payday he could be setting up with the Dodgers.
Framber Valdez’s workload this season adds some weight to that idea. The Tigers were already thinking about the risk of wearing Skubal down if they moved him, but they also can’t ignore Valdez, who was supposed to be the club’s replacement ace after a Skubal trade. He has topped 100 pitches in three starts this season, even when the innings have gotten messy and the outing has ended early.
Skubal has long been praised in Detroit as the kind of competitor who can reach another gear when the moment demands it. Former teammates and beat writers have consistently described him as a pitcher with that “it” factor, someone capable of digging deeper than most.
Still, there’s another side to this, and Tigers fans saw a hint of it during the arbitration debacle. Skubal is not only pitching for a team with World Series expectations; he’s also doing it for one of the few clubs that can likely afford him when the offseason arrives. That was never the case in Detroit.
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Beau Brieske and Jace Jung both sit in that conversation for different reasons. Brieske has been trending better in Triple-A, giving the Tigers a live arm to consider, while Jung brings the kind of offensive upside that can keep a player in the picture even if the defensive fit is still being sorted out. How Detroit fills those openings should say a lot about which players the front office still sees as part of the next wave. [Read more 🡒]