SerpApi.Org
For the past two seasons, the Detroit Tigers seemed to be building toward something big. So their position in the standings at the MLB All-Star break this year qualifies them as one of the biggest disappointments in an American League full of disappointments.
The Tigers, who built on their win total each of the last four seasons and reached the AL Division Series the last two years, have floundered in fourth place in the surprisingly competitive AL Central. Only the lowly Kansas City Royals, who are locked in a heated battle with the Los Angeles Angels and Colorado Rockies to be the worst team in all of baseball, sit below them.
As a result, speculation that this will mark the end of Tarik Skubal’s time in Detroit became something of a given. Either via trade or signing elsewhere, the meaty ace surely wouldn’t be back in a Tigers uniform long-term.
Right?
Despite an atrocious start to the season and what their current record suggests, the Tigers actually have reason for optimism. They entered the break boasting the best record in baseball since the start of June at 22-14, which puts them in the AL Wild Card conversation, although the division race appears to be a two-team affair between the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Guardians. They’re also one of just six AL teams with a positive run differential, which is a good indicator of whether a team is underachieving or — like the first-place Texas Rangers with a negative-15 run differential — overachieving.
All of this complicates the Skubal situation.
If the Tigers are within striking distance of the wild card at the trade deadline, can the Tigers justify dealing their stopper? And if they keep him but make a late-season flurry that still falls short of the playoffs, can they afford to let him walk this offseason (once the labor issue is resolved)?
In a way, the Tigers’ early struggles made the front office’s choice to play it slow with Skubal a relatively easy one. A bad team has less use for a $40 million pitcher entering his 30s, after all. But now that the Tigers have turned it around — and are even potentially threatening to be one of the stronger teams in a weak AL — the Tigers’ decision has become much harder.
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