Tarik Skubal sends big message to Tigers, interested teams as trade deadline approaches

As Will Sammon, Patrick Mooney and Katie Woo of The Athletic noted for a piece published on Thursday, Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal is seen as "the main character of" the MLB trade deadline that will arrive on Aug. 3 (6 p.m. ET). 

Skubal is set to be a free agent at the end of the season, and he likely will be too expensive for the Tigers to re-sign. Meanwhile, a Detroit team that ended Thursday's action with a 49-54 record is not seen as a legitimate World Series contender. 

Nevertheless, Skubal made it clear on Thursday afternoon that he would prefer not to be traded this summer. 

Why Tarik Skubal wants to stay with Tigers through end of the season

"I think we have a chance to win a World Series," Skubal said about the Tigers while speaking with Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic. "I’ve said that since spring training. That’s never changed. That belief in this team has never changed throughout the season. … Going into spring training, the whole offseason, I’ve never been more motivated to try to win a World Series for this city, the team that drafted me in 2018 and helped develop me. That’s always been the goal, and that will never change unless I’m told I’m on a different team."

The Tigers entered Friday trailing a handful of teams in the battle for the American League's final wild-card playoff berth. As it pertains to the AL Central, the 54-47 Chicago White Sox will head into the weekend sitting atop the division standings. The 54-50 Cleveland Guardians were second, followed by the 51-53 Minnesota Twins.

"Those questions are not for me," Skubal said about the Tigers' trade-deadline plans. "I don’t know how they handle the business on that side. Been around it a couple times and (other players) didn’t have any idea until about five minutes before you guys did. I assume that’s how it’s going to be handled because that’s how most things are handled."

Where Tarik Skubal could be traded before Aug. 3 deadline

According to Sammon, Mooney and Woo, "the industry favorite" to land Skubal's services this summer is a Los Angeles Dodgers side that has "both the prospect capital and the financial security to ... consider trading for" the 29-year-old. Per Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic, the Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Rays, Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees also possess what the Tigers could want in return for Skubal.

On paper, any of the teams mentioned above would give Skubal a better chance to claim a World Series championship ring this fall. 

"I don’t know if I believe that," he said about such takes. "I don’t know if I believe the odds. I’ve been on a team where we had a 0.2 percent chance to make the playoffs, and we did it. So I’m not going to speculate on percentages. I think once you get there, it’s really hard to win a World Series. It’s really hard to get in, and I think this team has all the pieces to be able to do that." 

The Tigers still have a little over a week to prove Skubal right regarding what the club could achieve over the next few months. What happens beyond that is anybody's guess as of the morning of July 24.