Tigers Push Late-Season Surge to Retain All-Star Pitcher Tarik Skubal

With two weeks remaining before the MLB trade deadline on August 3, the Detroit Tigers are confronting a decisive crossroads: win games and keep All-Star right-hander Tarik Skubal, or risk sliding further out of the postseason picture and potentially seeing the pitcher moved. Manager A.J. Hinch emphasized that the team has been treating every game as a “Game 7” since May, aware that trade speculation surrounds Skubal while the club battles a 4½-game deficit in the American League wild-card race and a 6½-game gap behind the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central.

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Hinch told reporters the organization is deliberately blocking out external chatter, insisting that the focus must remain on winning each contest. He noted that the Tigers’ identity embraces the pressure of the trade-talk environment and that maintaining health and performance from key players is essential to preserving their trajectory toward the playoffs.

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• “We've been playing Game 7 since May,” — A.J. Hinch, Detroit Tigers manager

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• “We know what's ahead. We know what the conversation around our team is. Tarik is in the news every single day because someone has a dream trade to make up -- yet we have a game to win that night.” — A.J. Hinch

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• “We're taking it with open arms, that it's part of our identity,” — A.J. Hinch

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• “We've got to block out all the news of what's ahead the next few weeks and get to winning games.” — A.J. Hinch

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• “I'll ease him back in,” — A.J. Hinch, referring to veteran infielder Gleyber Torres

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Veteran infielder Gleyber Torres was activated from the injured list on Monday, though Hinch cautioned that Torres may not play every day for the next ten days. Meanwhile, infielder/outfielder Javier Baez (ankle) is slated for a rehab outing with the Class-A Lakeland team on Tuesday.

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Since returning from a six-week elbow injury, Skubal has posted a 2.97 ERA across seven starts. FanGraphs currently assigns Detroit a 16 % chance of winning the AL Central—slightly higher than its wild-card odds—while the team seeks to capitalize on a schedule that has featured the fewest games against divisional opponents. The outcome of this late-July push will largely determine whether the Tigers retain Skubal beyond the August 3 deadline.

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