Cubs Considering Tarik Skubal

The Cubs have made no secret of their desire to add starting pitching and are at least checking in on the top of the market. Patrick Mooney of The Athletic reports that the Cubs have considered making a push for Tarik Skubal among their various rotation possibilities.

Skubal made what might be his final start in a Tigers uniform on Wednesday. He pitched well, working 6 2/3 frames of three-run ball with six punchouts. Skubal zipped through six scoreless innings but ran into trouble in the seventh. Kyle Finnegan and Drew Anderson were unable to hold what had once been a 7-0 lead. The Tigers wound up dropping a 10-9 heartbreaker in 12 innings.

Detroit dropped two of three against Baltimore after losing the final two games of last week’s four-game set with Kansas City. They’re seven games under .500 at 51-58. Detroit is off tomorrow before traveling to West Sacramento for a three-game set against the A’s. That feels like a must-win series, but it’s unclear if even sweeping it will be enough to avoid a sale.

The Tigers are in the fourth place in the AL Central. They’re only 5.5 games behind the division-leading White Sox and 4.5 out in the Wild Card race. The bigger obstacle is the number of teams they’d have to jump.

Detroit would need to pass Minnesota, Cleveland and Chicago in the division or five clubs in the Wild Card race. They need to play at a 95-win pace just to finish the season at .500. Getting to 84 wins would require a 33-20 showing (a 101-win pace) from here forward. The Tigers surely feel they’re a better team than their record, but their atrocious May has left them with little margin for error.

Skubal’s résumé speaks for itself. He’s the two-time defending Cy Young winner who is having another elite season despite undergoing an elbow scope in early May. He’s one of the three best pitchers in the sport, arguably the very best. No one else on the trade block would have a bigger impact on an acquiring team’s odds of winning the 2026 World Series. The chances of an extension two months away from what should be a record-breaking pitching contract are essentially nil. He’s a rental who’d command a substantial return for what’ll likely be one playoff run.

The Cubs should add a playoff-caliber starter. They’ve been tied to Reid Detmers, who is eligible for arbitration through 2028. Mooney unsurprisingly notes they’d prefer to add a controllable arm over a rental, but they’re not going to completely close off the latter route.

Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga are Chicago’s top two starters at the moment. They should get Edward Cabrera back from a hamstring strain next month, but he has an extended injury history and hasn’t pitched as well as hoped this year even when healthy. Ben Brown has an uncertain return timeline from a neck strain. The Cubs designated Jameson Taillon for assignment this week, opening a rotation spot. Javier Assad will make a spot start tomorrow against St. Louis but should move back to relief if/when they trade for a starter.

Chicago will need to weigh whether to take a swing at the best rental arm in years in a season where they’re likely to face a three-game Wild Card Series either way. The Cubs are six games back of Milwaukee in the NL Central. FanGraphs gives them a 14% chance of winning the division (which frankly feels high). They’d obviously feel good about their chances of taking Game 1 of any series with Skubal on the mound, but any three-game set is pretty close to a coin flip.

The Brewers, Rays and Dodgers have also been tied to Skubal. All three of those teams are winning their respective divisions and currently in position to secure a first-round bye. Most contenders will at least be in touch with Detroit president of baseball operations Scott Harris over the next few days. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported last night that more teams had begun reaching out after the Tigers dropped the opener of the Baltimore series on Monday.