Tarik Skubal trade rumors: What Tigers exec Scott Harris had to say about Cy Young favorite's Detroit future

Coming off their agonizingly close loss to the Seattle Mariners in the American League Division Series, the Detroit Tigers are turning their attentions to the coming offseason and their status as contenders moving forward. Most essentially, this means addressing the status of ace and AL Cy Young frontrunner Tarik Skubal. 

The dominating left-hander will be entering his walk year next season, and that means relentless speculation on whether the Tigers will trade him this winter, sign him to a long-term extension, or keep him in the fold for the final year of team control and then let him walk. Our R.J. Anderson recently explored the Tigers' options with Skubal in further depth.

What is Tarik Skubal's future with Tigers? Free agency clock already ticking after Detroit's playoff exit

R.J. Anderson

On that front, Detroit president of baseball operations Scott Harris during the club's end-of-season press conference Monday addressed Skubal's future, albeit in the very non-illuminating way common to those in his position: 

"I can't comment on our players being traded. I can't comment on free agents. And I can't comment on other teams' players. I'm gonna respond by not actually commenting on it. Tarik is a Tiger. I hope he wins the Cy Young Award for the second consecutive year. He's an incredible pitcher and we're lucky to have him."

"He's the best pitcher in baseball. Like, he's going to hopefully win a second Cy Young. It would be arrogant and tone-deaf for me to claim that we could do all this stuff without him, but, on the other hand, it's also offensive to the other players in the clubhouse to treat us as a one-player team. The fact is we've had Tarik and he's made incredible contributions for the duration of his tenure with the Tigers, but especially the last two years. He's gotten a lot better, he's pitched huge games for us and this guy [Hinch] has done a really good job of keeping him healthy and performing at a really high level with how he's managed him early in the season. He's been a really huge part of what we've done here and it's a blast to watch him pitch... He's here and we're glad he's here."

There's no real takeaway from Harris' words other than nothing has been ruled out and that a vigorous effort to keep Skubal has not in any way been telegraphed. What is known is that Skubal is the best pitcher in baseball and is essential to the Tigers' status as contenders. The 29-year-old Skubal emerged as an ace in 2024, culminating in a Cy Young award. Over the past two seasons, he's pitched to a 2.30 ERA, and in a combined 387 ⅓ innings he's racked up 469 strikeouts against just 68 unintentional walks. He's been a part of the Tigers organization since they drafted him with a ninth-round pick in 2018. 

Skubal's sustainable excellence and recent durability combined with his proximity to free agency -- plus the fact that he's a Scott Boras client -- all point to his testing the market during the 2026-27 offseason. For the Tigers, that means a high price tag on any extension. Tigers fans, though, will no doubt be clamoring for them to meet that ask, and doing what's required to keep Skubal in Detroit beyond 2026 is perhaps the only way they'll keep this current window of contention open.