Tarik Skubal will take in Opening Day this year on the mound for the Detroit Tigers. It was this time last year that Skubal spent the start of the season rehabbing from flexor tendon surgery. Manager A.J. Hinch announced Friday that the left-hander will be the starter when the Tigers open their season against the Chicago White Sox. Right-hander, Dylan Cease, who finished second in American League Cy Young voting in 2022, has been named the Opening Day starter for the White Sox.
“He’s earned this one,” Hinch said in its daily morning meeting. “One, he’s really talented. Two, his preparation is incredible. I’ve seen it grow from good to great. His intensity, his presence, how he interacts with his teammates. It’s a great honor, and it’s an honor for me to be able to tell him. It’ll be his first of hopefully many.”
Tarik Skubal Awarded First Opening Day Start
Skubal, 27, posted a 2.80 ERA with 14 walks and 102 strikeouts across 80 1/3 innings in 15 starts last season. When the left-hander is healthy, he was graded as the best pitcher in baseball last season: He was worth 3.3 fWAR from his July 4 return through October 1. In September, Skubal took his game to another level, logging a 0.90 ERA with four walks and 43 strikeouts in 30 innings. His ERA ranked second in baseball that month, only behind another left-hander, Blake Snell. The incumbent Cy Young Award winner had a 0.58 ERA across 31 inning.
Skubal Pitching Like An Ace
There are plenty of ways to look at Skubal’s success over this stretch. He managed to hold opponents scoreless in six of his 14 outings, fanning seven or more in seven starts. That matched the longest streaking by a Tiger since the Justin Verlander days, including nine or more strikeouts in four of his last five. In three starts, he’s allowed one earned run and ten baserunners, striking out 28 over 19 innings. One of the biggest improvements in Skubal’s arsenal has been a serious increwase in his fastball velocity.
After averaging over 94 mph on his four-seamer for the first three seasons of his career, the pitcher is at 95.8 mph on average. The results were immediate as opposing hitters went from a .420 wOBA off the fastball in 2021 to a .246 wOBA in 2023. Tigers fans will hope he can continue to showcase this in 2024 and beyond. But Skubal isn’t too concerned, downplaying questions about being the Tigers ace.
“I don’t really care bout labels,” Skubal told Evan Petzold of the Detroit Press. “Being the starter Game 1 of the playoffs is a little bit more special, so that’s where I’m at.”
Most Recent Tigers Opening Day Starters
Before Skubal in 2024, the five most recent Opening Day starters for the Tigers were Driver Price (2015), Verlander (2009-2014, 2016, 2017), Jordan Zimmerman (2018, 2019), Matthew Boyd (2020, 2021) and Eduardo Rodríguez (2022, 2023). Detroit will look to make the next step with their core with the hopes of making the postseason or even take the AL Central division title from the Minnesota Twins.
More must-reads: