Fishy Tarik Skubal injury report could put his Tigers career in jeopardy

Tarik Skubal was expected to miss 2-3 months due to surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow. Any time 'elbow surgery' is associated with a pitcher as talented as Skubal, it's best to proceed with caution. Add in that Skubal was expected to be floated at the trade deadline by the Detroit Tigers should they fall out of contention, and that Skubal is in a contract year, and the reports you see could be influenced by parties with an ulterior motive.

If you don't catch my drift, let me explain. MLB insiders often get their information from agents, executives and owners. What both sides have that the other needs is information. An insider, for example, wants to break news before anyone else. In return, a team executive may want more information on another team's trade deadline interests, or a free agent's asking price. So, when something as serious as elbow surgery is involved, not only is that information sketchy at best, but it's also dangerous.

Tarik Skubal receives positive injury update that doesn't add up

Per Jon Heyman of the New York Post (and other outlets), Skubal's surgery went quite well, with the surgeon removing one loose body in his elbow. Per Heyman, Skubal could be back in as soon as 4-to-6 weeks. That would be an excellent timeline for the Tigers, which are running on fumes without their best pitcher.

The Tigers are 18-20 on the season and one game back in the AL Central. They were just swept by the Boston Red Sox and have lost six of their last 10 games. Still, Detroit must consider where this information is coming from. Heyman is known for his close ties to Boras, and Skubal is a Boras client. One look at the comments under his tweet make that brutally obvious.

More importantly, per Chris Towers of CBS Sports, no starting pitcher has undergone this type of surgery in the last five seasons and come back prior to 60 days. Not only would Skubal's recovery time be unheard of, it's borderline dangerous for a pitcher who has already undergone Tommy John surgery.

Skubal underwent TJ in college. Per the National Library of Medicine, upwards to 35 percent of patients who go under the knife once to receive Tommy John, end up needing a second surgery. That is all patients – not just those who throw a baseball over 100 MPH on a regular basis.

This is where those ulterior motives start to get dangerous. While mentioning Skubal's quick recovery time gets Heyman a scoop and helps Boras fuel trade rumors (assuming that was the source of this, of course), it only hurts the player himself.

Should the Tigers trade Tarik Skubal at the MLB trade deadline?

Given Skubal's added injury concern, if the Tigers are out of the playoff race by August they should consider trading their ace. This, of course, assumes that the information Heyman received is correct — and I have little doubt that it is — and that contenders are willing to pay a hefty price for Skubal. That's a lot of ifs, ands or buts, though you get the picture.

Skubal now has at least two elbow surgeries under his belt and will want a contract north of $400 million when he reaches free agency this coming winter. The Tigers, nor any other MLB team, can guarantee the future of the sport due to a pending lockout, let alone whether Skubal will stay healthy enough to make some return on that investment.

Signing a starting pitcher to that kind of contract is dangerous, even if he's a back-to-back AL Cy Young winner. As a mid-market team, the Tigers can afford to spend when it suits them. They are not the Dodgers, Mets or Yankees, though, and cannot pretend to be even for the sake of keeping Skubal in the same uniform for his entire career.

I'm not a business major, and the Tigers wouldn't spend my money to extend Skubal. What I do know about this organization is that signing Skubal for $400 million will impact future spending. That's why it's worth shopping him around before the trade deadline — just as it was this past winter — while they have the chance.

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