Tigers face difficult challenge after trading Skubal to Dodgers
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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The Detroit Tigers said their goodbyes to ace Tarik Skubal and now must turn their focus to an uncertain final two months of the season as they try to make a playoff push without their best player.
The Tigers traded the two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner to the Los Angeles Dodgers for three minor league prospects in a deal that was agreed to late Saturday night.
“Baseball has a funny way of challenging you to deal with change,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said before the series finale against the Athletics on Sunday. “Sometimes that’s difficult, sometimes it’s part of the game and part of the business. These guys are callous to some of the emotions that come with it.”
The Tigers responded on Sunday with their third straight win to remain within 2 1/2 games of the last wild-card spot in the AL. Keider Montero pitched six scoreless innings for Detroit in the 11-0 victory.
Spencer Torkelson hit a two-run double in the first inning against Gage Jump (4-7) to stake Montero to the early lead. Gleyber Torres added a two-run single and Eduardo Valencia had a two-run double in the fourth inning to break the game open. Valencia added a two-run double in a four-run eighth.
Montero (8-6) allowed just two hits and two walks.
Moving on without Skubal is now the ultimate challenge. The ninth-round draft pick in 2018 developed into one of the best pitchers in baseball, winning the Cy Young in 2024 and ’25 and posting a 2.40 ERA over the past three seasons.
Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings and had a major impact in the clubhouse. But with him set to become a free agent after the season, the Tigers opted to trade him for minor league right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.
News of the trade broke during Detroit’s 8-6 win over the A’s on Saturday night with many players first hearing about it from fans near the dugout during the game. Skubal was back in the clubhouse beyond the center-field fence at the minor league stadium where the A’s play when he got the news, making it impossible for the players to get the news directly from him until after the game.
But they managed to focus on the game and come up with the win.
“The team’s handled it really well,” first baseman Spencer Torkelson said.
The trade came at an uncertain time for the Tigers, who have overcome a slow start to the season.
Prized prospect Max Clark was called up from the minors on Friday. But the team also scratched Casey Mize from his scheduled start this weekend in case he gets traded before the deadline today.
“It’s a weird, weird place,” Mize said. “We’ve played really good baseball the last couple days. We trade our best player. It says we’re 2 1/2 back, but obviously there’s a lot of teams still to overpass, so it’s certainly a strange spot.”
The task now will be to try to get back to the playoffs without Skubal after they lost in Game 5 of the division series the past two seasons. Skubal started both of those losses. He had a rough start and took the loss in 2024 against Cleveland. He had a strong start last season with 13 strikeouts in six innings against Seattle but the bullpen squandered a 2-1 lead and the Tigers went on to lose 3-2 in 15 innings.
Skubal said Saturday night after the trade that it hurt that he couldn’t help deliver Detroit its first World Series title since 1984.
“Over the last couple of years, we don’t get anywhere near to what we’ve done without Tarik Skubal,” Mize said. “I hope our fan base is appreciative of that, even if it maybe didn’t end the way that everyone wanted it to.”
The Tigers fans might get a chance to see Skubal again later this month when the Dodgers visit Detroit Aug. 28-30.
Against the Athletics, the Tigers followed up a three-game sweep at home in early July by winning all three games this weekend to finish the season series 6-0 for their first sweep ever against an AL team. This marked the fifth time the A’s went winless against an AL foe with it last happening when they went 0-6 against Toronto in 2019.
Detroit opens a series on Tuesday in Seattle and won’t know the pitching rotation until after the trade deadline.
Peralta to Rays
Right-hander Freddy Peralta is switching teams, too, as the Tampa Bay Rays beef up their rotation.
The last-place New York Mets traded Peralta to the Rays for three minor leaguers, outfielder Aidan Smith, infielder Émilien Pitre and right-hander Gary Gill Hill.
Peralta, a two-time All-Star who can become a free agent following the World Series, has been a disappointment with the Mets after they acquired him from Milwaukee in a January trade.
But he could boost the middle of a strong rotation for the pitching-rich Rays, who began the day with the best record in the American League at 65-45 and a 3 1/2-game lead in the AL East over the New York Yankees.
In other moves, the surprising Chicago White Sox picked up right-hander Luis Castillo in a deal with the Seattle Mariners, and the Atlanta Braves acquired outfielder Lane Thomas from the Kansas City Royals.