Tarik Skubal’s first night in a Dodgers uniform came with the kind of workload and punch-out total Los Angeles expected, even if the scoreboard didn’t fully cooperate.
The former Tigers ace took the ball Tuesday at Wrigley Field and worked six innings in his debut for the Dodgers, allowing two runs on four hits while walking two and striking out six. One of the damage swings came in the third inning, when Danny Swanson went deep. Skubal gave up just two hits in his final inning, but he exited with the Dodgers trailing 2-1.
Skubal’s move to Los Angeles came late Saturday night, when Detroit dealt the two-time Cy Young winner ahead of the trade deadline. He had spent his entire major league career with the Tigers before the trade, after Detroit selected him in the ninth round in 2018 out of Seattle University.
The return for Detroit included three prospects: Triple-A pitcher River Ryan, Double-A outfielder Zyhir Hope and High-A pitcher Brady Smith. Hope is rated by some prospect rankers as a top-25 prospect in baseball.
Tigers president Scott Harris said Monday that it had been clear for a long time that Detroit would not be in position to sign Skubal long-term, and Skubal is set to become a free agent at season’s end.
Depending on how the Dodgers handle their rotation, Skubal could line up to face the Tigers at Comerica Park in the series scheduled for Aug. 28-30.
In Other News...
Tigers Face An Early Rotation Test As West Coast Trip Begins
The Tigers head into the first stop of their West Coast trip carrying a little momentum and a lot of change. After sweeping the Athletics, Detroit also shook up its pitching picture at the trade deadline by moving Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize, leaving the club to lean on the arms still in place as it opens a three-game series against Seattle.
Emerson Hancock will get the ball for the Mariners in the opener, and he arrives with some confidence after a strong month even as he works through a recent pitching hand injury. For Detroit, it is an early test of how the rotation holds up against a division contender, and a chance to see whether the upbeat stretch from Oakland carries over against a tougher opponent. [Read more 🡒]
A.J. Hinch Made One Intriguing Choice In Detroits First Post-Deadline Lineup
The Tigers came out of the Trade Deadline with a familiar look as they opened a new series against the Seattle Mariners, keeping the focus on a lineup that has been doing plenty of damage even with the roster churn around it. Detroits recent offensive surge, capped by a five-game stretch in which it scored 55 runs, has given the club some room to let the bats drive the conversation while the pitching staff adjusts to life without Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize.
A.J. Hinch still made one notable choice in the first post-deadline lineup, a reminder that the Tigers are trying to balance short-term production with the bigger picture of the season. With rookie Max Clark already announcing himself by homering in his MLB debut, Detroit has enough new energy to keep things interesting, and the way Hinch arranges the top of the order against Seattle could say plenty about how he wants this stretch to unfold. [Read more 🡒]
Tigers Farm Reset Puts One Huge Question On Their Deadline Trades
The deadline shuffle around baseball was as much about future value as present urgency, and Detroit was right in the middle of it. Several contenders and rebuilders spent the final stretch of July reshaping their systems, with the Mets adding prospects, the Orioles stockpiling talent, and the Tigers making two of the boldest moves of all by dealing Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize as they tried to restock for what comes next.
For Detroit, the obvious question now is not whether the front office was active, but whether it extracted enough long-term value from those trades to justify the loss of established pitching. The farm system gets a needed reset after that kind of deadline, yet the true measure of the approach will come later, when the prospects are asked to turn promise into production and the Tigers find out whether they bought enough time for the roster to catch up. [Read more 🡒]