No matter how hard the Detroit Tigers insist otherwise, and no matter how many other starting pitchers get dangled on the market, baseball fans around the country simply cannot quit the idea of a blockbuster Tarik Skubal trade. The idea of arguably the best pitcher on planet Earth, a year away from free agency and seemingly not close to an extension in Detroit, heading to one contender or another is catnip in a time of year when there's a lot of time to fill and not nearly enough news with which to fill it.
But let the record show: On Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, I'm putting my foot down.
Tarik Skubal trade proposals keep getting more ridiculous
The latest foray into the land of mock Skubal trades — a column at The Athletic courtesy of Jim Bowden, listing five "potential packages" for the lefty — is so preposterous that we need to shut down this entire genre until further notice. Not just because hardly any of them have made contact with reality, but also because that willingness to throw caution and accuracy to the wind is doing everyone a disservice.
This scourge began before Detroit's season had even ended, Sure, Skubal was a generational talent, the kind every team dreams of having a shot at, and trading him would be a miserable PR hit that this Tigers regime might not come back from. But never mind all that; what's really important is that every social media account with access to a Photoshop subscription gets some easy engagement, and fans in big markets from New York to Boston to Chicago to L.A. get to dream about pressing a big button marked "win World Series".
Now that we've hit the offseason, though, it' s out of control. Seriously: I cannot stress enough the extent to which Bowden is off the reservation here. He tries to build trade returns from five different contenders rumored to have interest, and not a single one of them passes even the most cursory smell test.
Team | Proposed package |
|---|---|
Boston Red Sox | LHP Connelly Early, INF Kristian Campbell, OF Jhostynxon García (MLB Pipeline's No. 85 overall prospect) and RHP Christian Foutch |
Los Angeles Dodgers | RHP Emmet Sheehan, LHP Justin Wrobleski, LHP Jackson Ferris (MLB Pipeline's No. 98 propsect) and OF Zyhir Hope (MLB Pipeline's No. 20 prospect) |
New York Mets | RHP Jonah Tong (MLB Pipeline's No. 46 prospect), RHP Brandon Sproat, INF/OF Jett Williams (MLB Pipeline's No. 30 prospect) and INF Ronny Mauricio |
New York Yankees | OF Spencer Jones (MLB Pipeline's No. 99 prospect), RHP Will Warren, RHP Carlos Lagrange (MLB Pipeline's No. 74 prospect) and RHP Bryce Cunningham |
Seattle Mariners | RHP Bryce Miller, RHP Ryan Sloan (MLB Pipeline's No. 40 prospect), C Harry Ford (MLB Pipeline's No. 42 prospect), RHP Teddy McGraw and RHP Michael Morales |
What's most impressive here is the sheer variety of ways these manage to miss the mark. Some of them would have Detroit hanging up the phone before the conversation even ended: Why would Detroit bet its franchise on Spencer Jones' strikeout rate? Why would they have any interest in Bryce Miller and Harry Ford? The Mets' offer, meanwhile, loaded in the other direction: New York would be giving up two important rotation pieces for 2026, plus a crucial infield prospect in Williams, all for one year of a player liable to bolt in free agency.
Granted, there's a bit of this phenomenon with every round of trade rumors; if you're happy with what your team's giving up to get a given star, you're almost certainly not giving up enough to get a deal done, and no one likes to be a Debbie Downer. But Skubal is such a singular player, and the teams involved have such rabid followings, that it's been kicked into overdrive.
And that gets to a more substantive point, beyond the evergreen observation that Yankees fans need to be put on a watchlist. (I'm very much including myself here; someone please revoke my access to the internet, I cannot be trusted.)
There's a reason all these Tarik Skubal trade proposals keep missing the mark
Even setting aside, Detroit's stated intent, finding a workable Skubal trade is an awfully tough needle to thread. First, you need to find a team with enough ammunition to give the Tigers a package that will keep them viable in 2026 and beyond — no small task, considering how much he means to this team. Second, that team needs to be deep enough to be able to give up that package and still have enough left over to contend for a World Series next season. And third, that team needs to be able to afford whatever Skubal might cost on the free market next offseason.
Good luck checking all of those boxes in one deal. The Tigers don't have to move Skubal now; even if they do eventually decide to trade him after extension talks break down, there's always the deadline next July. That means there's very little leverage to exert as of yet, and Detroit doesn't have to settle. They can ask for the moon, and once they do, it's difficult to imagine another team moving heaven and Earth to acquire a rental — even one as great as Skubal.
He is a Scott Boras client, after all, and he's going to hit the market next winter. Once he does, anybody and everybody will be in on him, and the bidding could get downright nutty. So, if you are trading for him now rather than midseason, you need to be very confident in your team's ability to win a title next season.
There are just so many more moving parts here than people want to accept, at least right up until they see some Skubal offer that they think is giving up too much. That's the thing about fake trades: Ultimately, they're just wish fulfillment.