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With scores of Tarik Skubal mock trades flooding the internet these days, it might be difficult for some to remember that the Detroit Tigers don’t have to trade Skubal, and shouldn’t.
Wherever contract discussions may lie between Skubal, Scott Boras and Detroit’s front office, the truth remains that trading a back-to-back Cy Young Award winner makes you worse, not better (at least in the short-term), and the Tigers have every reason to try and contend in 2026. They can do so by keeping Skubal in Detroit as long as possible.
Trade rumors will continue to swirl as long as the Tigers and Skubal remain extension-less, however. That’s just the name of the game. The monotony of the situation for Tigers fans is that close to none of the rumors or ideas surrounding a Skubal trade are remotely intriguing.
The vast majority of Skubal mock trades have envisioned the Tigers’ trading partner forking over a laughable amount of top prospect capital for Skubal (rightfully so), but that doesn’t make the Tigers’ rotation in 2026 comparable to what it was in 2025.
Skubal mocks become tiresome as a whole, but there has finally arrived one diamond in the haystack in the form of a new, wild and crazy trade proposal from MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince.
Absurd Tarik Skubal-Paul Skenes trade idea actually weirdly pleases Tigers fans
Castrovince proposed a three-team deal between the Tigers, Pirates, and Mets that sends Skubal to New York, Skenes to Detroit, and a boatload of prospects to Pittsburgh (specifically, Jett Williams, Jonah Tong, and Jacob Reimer from the Mets, and Max Clark and Bryce Rainer from the Tigers).
Castrovince was fully transparent about the ludicrousness of the proposal. “I can’t stress enough that we’re trying to have some fun with these ideas and that we don’t actually expect the Pirates to deal Skenes (I’m also still skeptical the Tigers actually deal Skubal, but we’ll see),” he wrote.
The trade might not be anything close to realistic, but at least it finally offers up comparable value in return for Skubal. In a world where Detroit did have to trade Skubal, the player coming back to the Tigers who would make fans feel the least upset about the whole ordeal would be Skenes. It would be one Cy Young for another, and Skenes is younger, too.
In essence, the only “fair” trade for Skubal is one that would never happen. This has Tigers fans feeling surprisingly satisfied that such a trade idea is out and about in the world.