Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Detroit Tigers are struggling to score runs, ranking 25th in OPS this season with a .215 team batting average.
- Tarik Skubal delivered another dominant performance with seven shutout innings against Arizona, but the Tigers' offense went silent again.
- With internal improvements falling short and no major additions made this offseason, Skubal's future with the team remains uncertain.
As he does seemingly every time he takes the mound, Tarik Skubal gave the Detroit Tigers every chance to win, firing seven innings of one-run ball against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately, while Skubal is the best pitcher on planet Earth right now, he's not Shohei Ohtani — he can't swing the bat for himself, and no one else in the Tigers lineup could either in a 1-0 loss.
Despite a 2-4 start this season, Detroit will probably be fine; the AL Central once again looks thoroughly winnable, and Skubal plus Framber Valdez and even a little bit of help around them should be enough to get back to the playoffs for the third year in a row. But how much does that actually matter, if the same problems that doomed the Tigers in last year's ALDS — and the 2024 ALDS before that — remain? And why should Skubal think twice about signing elsewhere in free agency next winter, given that Scott Harris and this front office remain unable to put a championship-caliber roster around him?
The Tigers still haven't put a worthy offense around Tarik Skubal
The Tigers entered Wednesday hitting just .215/.296/.300 as a team this season, a .596 OPS that ranks just 25th in baseball — and those numbers will only go down after being shut out for the second time in six games. The rise of rookie infielder Kevin McGonigle has been thrilling to watch (he had two more hits on Wednesday), and Colt Keith has taken some encouraging steps forward. Other than that, though, the rest of Detroit's homegrown core simply hasn't been good enough, from Riley Greene to Spencer Torkelson to Kerry Carpenter.
Which is a problem, because Harris spent this offseason acting as though major internal improvement was coming. How else can you explain the refusal to make a single addition to this lineup, either via free agency or trade? It's not like the need wasn't apparent: Detroit collapsed offensively down the stretch of 2025, ranking 19th in team OPS and 25th in team OBP in the second half with the fifth-most strikeouts in the league over that span. And then, with their season on the line against Seattle in the ALDS, they disappeared, managing just two runs in 15 innings in the decisive Game 5 — and wasting another dominant Skubal start in the process.
The fact that Harris saw that happen and responded by running back is damning, no matter how much you could talk yourself into young prospects like McGonigle and Max Clark and steps forward from young hitters like Greene and others. A jolt was desperately needed, and yet the Tigers didn't appear to have much of any interest in the likes of Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso or Cody Bellinger or even trade candidates like Brendan Donovan, Willson Contreras or Brendan Lowe.
And now here we are, stuck with a team that once again feels like it comes with a hard ceiling. That was fine enough when these were plucky underdogs punching above their weight. But Skubal is the two-time defending AL Cy Young winner, with one year of team control remaining. It's time to get serious, and yet all the Tigers have told him is that he'd be better off elsewhere.
Even if Detroit wanted to pay him, would Tarik Skubal want to stay?
Whatever else you want to say about how Skubal has handled his looming free agency, he's always said all the right things when it comes to his desire to play for the only professional organization he's ever known. The ball is in Tigers ownership's court, and so far they don't seem to have much of any interest in even getting serious about making the lefty an offer commensurate with his value on the open market.
But even if they did, even if Chris Ilitch suddenly channeled the ghost of his late father Mike and decided to throw, say, $400 million in Skubal's direction, why wouldn't he rather take that same money elsewhere? The Tigers kicked their contention window open with that miracle run back in 2024, but since then, all they've done is keep their powder dry — and fail to take a meaningful step forward as a result. With a massive Skubal contract on the books for the next decade or so, what reason would he have to believe that would change?
Is Harris going to morph into Dave Dombrowski and start throwing his weight around? It certainly doesn't seem like it. And while that might be what a spreadsheet tells you is "best" for Detroit's future, Skubal doesn't have much reason to care about that. The only things he should care about are 1) making what the market will bear for his services and 2) giving himself the best chance to compete for World Series titles while he's still in his prime. Detroit sure seems like it's forfeiting 1) without even trying; but they've forfeited 2) as well, and they're running out of time to fix it.