The Detroit Tigers are not having the season they expected in 2026. After a rough first two months, they are in fourth place in the AL Central and nine games under .500. On the latest episode of “Baseball Bar-B-Cast,” hosts Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman discussed what has gone wrong for the Tigers this season.
First and foremost, the loss of the reigning AL Cy Young winner has been a big blow. Skubal has been out since April 29 and is recovering from surgery to remove “loose bodies” in his elbow. But the good news is that Tarik Skubal already threw a bullpen on Tuesday, and he threw all of his pitches.
When might Skubal make his return to Detroit?
“I think because we are still in uncharted territory with this revolutionary procedure, we cannot circle any dates on the calendar and be like, ‘This is when he’s going to be back,’” Shusterman said. “There is still going to be a process of building back up.”
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Shusterman surmised that Skubal will need a few rehab starts to get his workload back up and wouldn’t want to throw an inning or two in a major-league game, but Mintz took a different stance.
“Any bullet that Tarik Skubal has to use, he’s going to use it on a major-league mound,” he said. “… I would be surprised if we see him in Toledo or west Michigan. I think if he’s throwing, he’s throwing at Comerica or wherever the Tigers are.”
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How are the Tigers faring without Skubal?
In short, badly.
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“The Tigers have been essentially the worst team in baseball since Skubal went down,” Shusterman said.
That, Shusterman noted, can be attributed to the ace’s absence or the weakness of the roster or the offense’s struggles or the injuries to other important players or some combination of those problems. No matter the reason, the Tigers are 10-20 over their past 30 games. Only the Angels have been worse.
And Detroit dropped the first two games of this week’s series against the Cleveland Guardians at home.
Will the Tigers trade Skubal?
The hosts agreed that the chances Skubal gets traded are still minuscule — but they’re better than they were a few weeks ago.
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“Do I think Skubal will get traded? No,” Mintz said. “On April 29, when he got hurt and the Tigers were in first place in the AL Central, I would’ve put the odds under 5%. … Everything that has happened since that day has pushed that likelihood up.
“They’re playing bad baseball, the offense stinks, and injuries on the pitching side, including Skubal, have really hurt them. It is easier to envision a Skubal trade today than it was on the day he got hurt.”
Both hosts still believe it’s not going to happen, but they recognize that the Tigers might get some phone calls with offers worth considering as the trade deadline approaches. The biggest factor will be how the team is performing by that point.
“If the playoff odds tell Scott Harris that they have a 5% chance of making the postseason come deadline time, and Tarik Skubal is looking awesome, and there are teams calling and saying, ‘Here are all of our prospects so that we can have Skubal for a playoff run,’ that will be an interesting conversation,” Shusterman said.
For more on the Tigers and other MLB news, follow “Baseball Bar-B-Cast” wherever you get your podcasts.
