The MLB trade deadline can mean many things to many people.

For some folks — presumably the ones not rooting for the Detroit Tigers, considering the franchise’s eight-year streak of selling with two months of games to go — last Tuesday's action meant a time to look toward the postseason.

For others — we see you, prospect-heads — it’s a time to put all that scouting to use, as dozens of players most folks haven’t heard of swap organizations, bringing a moderate dose of hope to all the fans of selling teams.

(For example, the Freep’s Evan Petzold got the scoop on the seven players picked up in the Tigers’ four deadline deals, in what president of baseball operations Scott Harris — who surely isn’t biased —called a “haul of young talent.” Then again, some rival executives weren’t impressed, and it looked like the Tigers’ haul was lessened by Jack Flaherty’s back issue.)

And for yet others, it’s time to look toward the far future, all the way to … 2025! (Gee, will we have flying cars by then?) At least, that was on the mind of the Freep’s Carlos Monarrez, who rejoiced in the franchise’s decision not to trade Tarik Skubal by pointing out that the clock is now ticking even louder on Skubal’s impending free agency.

For us? Well, we’ve got eight weeks of Tigers baseball left to watch. So that’s just what we’ll do.

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Hello, and welcome to the 49 Games to Go Newsletter!

That’s not to say that, even with the Tigers entering the first full week of August 10 games out of an American League wild-card berth (and 15 games out in the AL Central), there aren’t some compelling narratives to keep an eye on, even beyond waiting for some much-anticipated September callups. (Jackson Jobe? Ty Madden? Spencer Torkelson? Your mileage may vary.)

And so, with that in mind, here are five Tigers that should make the final 49 games of the 2024 season worth watching:

Tarik Skubal: The road to the Cy Young

We know, we know: It’s bold to lead with the Tigers’ top pitcher and — as you may have read a few times — the AL Cy Young Award frontrunner. But here’s the thing: Is Skubal still the frontrunner after giving up more than four earned runs in a game for the first time since July 18 … 2023? After all, the Tigers appear headed for a sub-.500 finish for the eighth straight season, and no AL pitcher from a team with a losing record has won the Cy Young since Seattle’s Felix Hernandez did so in 2010. (Though we’ll note that Miami’s Sandy Alcántara won it in the NL despite the Marlins’ 69-93 record in 2022.)

Yes, of course. Even one rough start can’t derail the Skub-train (we’re still workshopping that), even if he didn’t get to face off with a fellow All-Star — he opened August at minus-145 (meaning it would take betting $145 to win $100) odds (according to Bet MGM) to take the award, the only pitcher in either league with minus odds. (The only other AL pitcher with better than +1400 odds, meanwhile, is Baltimore’s Corbin Burnes, at plus-125, whom you may remember from starting the All-Star Game last month.)

Then again, the sportsbooks don’t exactly have a say in the BBWAA’s postseason vote. So let’s go to the stats. Skubal is first in the AL in bWAR (5.0) and second in fWAR (4.0, behind Seattle’s George Kirby). The raw numbers back that up as well, with Skubal ranking in the top five in nearly every key stat: tied for first in total strikeouts (162), second in ERA (2.57), WHIP (0.946) and strikeouts per nine innings (10.694) and tied for third in wins (12). Burnes, meanwhile, ranks in the top five in just two categories: Wins, where he’s tied with Skubal, and ERA, where he’s third (2.63).

Skubal has approximately nine starts remaining this season, starting with Wednesday’s date with Kirby in Seattle; we don’t want to miss any of them on his path to becoming the first Tiger to win the Cy Young since Max Scherzer in 2013.

Colt Keith: A late Rookie of the Year push?

While we’re on the topic of postseason awards … does the Tigers’ 22-year-old second baseman have a shot at some hardware? Keith, who actually turns 23 on Aug. 14, is coming off a July in which he posted a ridiculous .322/.404/.644 slash line en route to winning AL Rookie of the Month. August hasn’t been quite as kind — a .188/.278/.188 line despite Sunday’s 2-for-5 performance — but it’s early still.

Keith’s 1.048 OPS in July raised his fWAR to 1.2, fifth among AL rookie position players, though he still has a ways to go to catch leader Colton Cowser (3.0) in Baltimore. He’s also behind New York’s Austin Wells (2.5), Boston’s Wilyer Abreu (2.1) and Oakland’s Max Schuemann (1.6) among position players. Among pitchers, New York’s Luis Gil (2.3 fWAR despite leading the majors in walks!) and Oakland’s Mason Miller (1.8) appear to be contenders as well.

If Keith keeps up his July pace — or something close to is — he could be the first Tiger to get Rookie of the Year votes since Willi Castro finished fourth in 2020, and the first to do it in a full season since Michael Fulmer won the award in 2016.

Justyn-Henry Malloy & Wenceel Pérez: More rookies to watch

We’re not going to write about every Tigers rookie, especially as the August roster more and more threatens to resemble Triple-A Toledo’s April slate. (Sorry, Dillon Dingler.) But it’s worth nothing that Pérez (0.7) and Malloy (0.1) have joined Keith among the top 20 AL rookie position players in fWAR, at Nos. 9 and 18, respectively, thanks to OPSes of .684 and .743.

Malloy in particular has improved every month, with his OPS going from .623 in June to .808 in July to .886 in August (albeit in just four games). Pérez, meanwhile, has cooled off since his blistering April (1.003 OPS), with just a .631 OPS in his 78 games since May 1.

A hot finish by either of them — or both — could give the Tigers two players drawing ROY votes for the first time since 2010, when Austin Jackson finished second in the voting and Brennan Boesch finished fifth.

Tyler Holton: Back-to-back dominance

We’ll finish things off with the pitcher who has become the Tigers’ most frequent starter — with four appearances as the “opener” — over the past 13 games. But Holton’s dominance stretches further back than that; Saturday’s three-inning outing was his 14th straight without allowing a run (earned or otherwise). Holton last allowed a run on June 26 (against the Philadelphia Phillies), bringing him to 21⅔ consecutive scoreless innings, during which he has 17 strikeouts, 12 hits allowed and just three walks.

Over that span, his ERA has dropped from 4.10 to 2.70, all while pitching multiple innings in 10 of the 14 appearances. All together, his ERA+ — ERA adjusted for park values, in which 100 is league average — sits at 159, or 59% better than league average. That follows a 2023 season in which the left-hander posted a 210 ERA+ (yes, he was 110% better than the AL average).

If Holton can maintain this pace, he has a shot at doing something that hasn’t been achieved by a Tigers reliever this century: Back-to-back seasons with an ERA+ above 150. The last Tigers reliever (minimum 40 appearances) to do it in consecutive seasons? Doug Brocail, who had a 173 ERA+ in 1998 followed by a 194 ERA+ in 1999. (We’ll note that closer Jason Foley has a shot at this, too, though he’ll need to pick it up a bit; after turning in a 170 ERA+ last season, he’s at 111 following Sunday’s scoreless third of an inning.)

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Jim dandy

OK, 1998-99 is a long time ago. More recently, it’s hard to remember a time when the Tigers weren’t sellers at the trade deadline. Though, to the franchise’s credit, it did its best to remind folks over the weekend, with a Saturday tribute to Jim Leyland culminating in the Skipper’s No. 10 being retired (and mounted on the right-field wall at Comerica Park, right next to Sparky Anderson’s No. 11). And sure enough, there was a little 2011-13 magic left in the Skip’s ’stache, as he, uh, sparked not one, not two, but three rallies on Saturday night, and the Freep’s Jeff Seidel was there for all of it, from an arthritis-inducing Corvette ride to a thank you for the fans from Leyland.

Montero truck

One attribute Leyland brought as Tigers manager was his willingness to let young pitchers learn on the job. Sometimes, it worked out (heyyy, Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello) and other times, not so much (hiii, Andy Oliver). In a similar vein, the Tigers are sticking with Keider Montero in their rotation — hey, somebody’s gotta throw the ball in the first inning — even as he fiddles with his pitch mix. Our Man Petzold broke down why a sinker is back in the rookie’s repertoire after two years without.

3 (more) to watch

Are they standouts-in-the-making? Or disappointments-in-waiting? It’s (probably) too soon to tell for these three youngsters:

BRANT HURTER: The left-hander made his MLB debut Sunday with three scoreless innings.

PARKER MEADOWS: His hamstring fully healed, the rookie’s swing looked sharp in his return Saturday.

SPENCER TORKELSON: He’s ‘still a part of our future’ according to Harris, though four homers in his past seven games for Toledo probably doesn’t hurt, either.

Mark your calendar (and stock up on caffeine)!

After today’s day off, the Tigers head out West for a six-game road trip — three games in Seattle from Tuesday-Thursday and three games in San Francisco from Friday-Sunday — featuring late-night starts Tuesday-Friday. That includes Wednesday’s gem of a pitching matchup, mentioned previously: Skubal vs. George Kirby, an All-Star snub who leads the AL in fewest walks per nine innings (0.993) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (8.733), at 9:40 p.m.

Other Tigers birthdays this week: Dave Rozema (68 on Monday), Édgar Rentería (48 on Wednesday), Steve Kemp (70 on Wednesday), Steven Moya (33 on Friday), Tom Brookens (71 on Saturday), Rocky Colavito (91 on Saturday), Bobo Newsom (would have been 117 on Sunday; died in 1962).

TL;DR

Of course, there’s one final thing to keep an eye on over the Tigers’ final 49 games: Their final record. At 53-60, they’ll need to finish 26-23 to top last season’s 78-84 result, and 29-20 to finish with a winning record for the first time since 2016. Is it possible? Well, we might not bet on it, but it’s worth noting that no team in baseball has an easier remaining strength of schedule than the Tigers, at .472. Then again, that’s thanks to seven remaining games (the most in baseball) against the woeful Chicago White Sox … but that’s a topic for another newsletter.

Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers Newsletter: 5 big-leaguers to watch the rest of 2024