George Kirby didn’t move at the trade deadline, but his name still ended up shaping one of the biggest conversations of the week.
According to ESPN’s reporting on the deal that sent Tarik Skubal from the Tigers to the Dodgers, the Mariners were at least open to listening on Kirby. That mattered because Detroit, while shopping the two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, had to account for the possibility that teams could shift their attention toward Seattle if talks on Skubal slowed down.
That created real pressure on the Tigers. Skubal was the headline arm on the market, and by every measure he was the better pitcher at the time of the trade.
He had a 2.79 ERA with 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings when Detroit dealt him. Kirby’s 2025 season had been interrupted by shoulder inflammation and finished with a 4.21 ERA, though he did flash some of his old form in 2026.
Even so, he was not matching Skubal’s production.
But the deadline doesn’t run purely on performance. Cost, control and timing all matter, and Kirby checked boxes that made him a practical fallback for teams looking for rotation help.
He is making $6.55 million and remains under club control through 2028. That means a team acquiring him would be getting three pennant races, not just one run at October.
Skubal, by contrast, is making $32 million this season and is headed for free agency after the 2026 World Series. The Dodgers are on the hook for roughly $9.5 million for the rest of this year, and they paid for what amounts to about 10 regular-season starts plus whatever he gives them in October.
Detroit knew it couldn’t afford to let the market drift. Kirby’s availability gave contenders another route, and that gave the Tigers urgency. If teams started seeing him as the safer, longer-term option, Skubal’s trade value could have taken a hit.
Kirby wound up staying in Seattle, which was no small thing for the Mariners. They kept a 28-year-old starter with elite command and two more seasons of control.
Still, the reporting leaves a big question hanging over the deadline: what kind of return could Seattle have gotten if Kirby had actually been moved?
If his name was enough to affect Skubal’s market, those weren’t casual conversations. Teams were clearly weighing the price of a rotation anchor, and Detroit couldn’t risk letting bidders turn away from Skubal and toward Seattle instead.
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