Grade the Trade: What if the Tigers went all-in on another ace alongside Tarik Skubal?

The Detroit Tigers were one or two quality starting pitchers away from being World Series contenders this season. They featured Tarik Skubal, but a plethora of below average arms after him and it came back to bite them in the postseason when they matched up with the Cleveland Guardians.

Cleveland had a much deeper roster of pitchers, allowing them to comfortably go to the bullpen after getting four of five innings from their starter.

This offseason, as the Tigers look to actually contend in 2025, they're going to need to add a starter. There is growing speculation that Detroit will look to do this through free agency, but the quality starters may be out of their price range.

Detroit would then have to turn to the trade market, where the top available arm is a division rival. Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox. And there are already members of the media, including Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report, that suggest this could be a logical idea.

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Grade the Trade: What if the Tigers paired Garrett Crochet alongside Tarik Skubal?

Here's the deal pitched by Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller:

"With the 11th, 49th and 72nd picks in the 2024 MLB draft, the Detroit Tigers selected the three then-high schoolers listed above," Miller wrote. "None of the three are expected to contribute at the MLB level anytime soon, but that's also true of the White Sox in general, who should be stockpiling as much "might become a key piece by 2027" talent as possible right now."

Rainer is the top prospect in this deal. He's a true five tool prospect that has exceptional power and speed. Hall has an exceptional frame with a mid to high nineties fastball and some solid off-speed stuff. Schiefelbein is solid across the board with an excellent slider from the left side. All three prospects are either 18 or 19 years old.

Looking at this deal logically, it's hard to imagine that the Tigers would be willing to move all three of their top picks from the most recent draft class.

Would the frame work for this deal make sense? Yes, it would. The Tigers would love to add a talent like Crochet and the White Sox would love to add a ton of teenage talent. But this deal only really works in favor of the White Sox. Detroit would be very interested in adding a young ace with the team control that comes with Crochet, but not at the expense of their most talented teenage prospects.

Tigers trade grade: C+

White Sox trade grade: A