Detroit Tigers 'never came close' to trading ace Tarik Skubal at 2024 trade deadline
Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal isn't going anywhere.
The Tigers didn't trade the ace of their pitching staff before Tuesday's 6 p.m. trade deadline, which means Skubal will finish the 2024 season in Detroit. President of baseball operations Scott Harris said the Tigers were "not close" to trading Skubal.
"We never came close to trading Skubal," Harris said.
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Skubal, 27, has a 2.35 ERA with 24 walks and 154 strikeouts across 130 innings in 21 starts in the 2024 season, leading all 68 qualified pitchers in ERA. He made the All-Star team for the first time in his five-year MLB career.
The Tigers listened on offers for Skubal but didn't move him. He has two years of team control remaining and is scheduled to become a free agent after the 2026 season.
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After the trade deadline, Harris was asked if the Tigers keeping Skubal means they'll be more active in free agency in an attempt to make the postseason in 2025.
The Tigers haven't reached the postseason since 2014.
Harris didn't answer the question.
"It's July right now," Harris said. "We got a lot of work to do this year. We have a really important second half for this team, both to continue to demonstrate that we can play competitive baseball for long stretches of time on this field, and we have a lot of young players in the big leagues who need to get a whole lot better. I think you guys have seen some flashes of it. I think when you see some of these players, what they looked like in April and now what they look like in July, it's a good example of what we can be as an organization, but we can't just start looking into the winter right now. We have a lot of work to do in August and September to make sure that the players on this team and the players that are going to impact this team in the second half are coming up and getting better. That's where our focus is right now. We can tackle those questions later on."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers 'never came close' to trading Tarik Skubal at deadline
