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CLEVELAND, Ohio — In a baseball world where nothing should surprise us anymore, this one still drops jaws: The Detroit Tigers are reportedly considering trading Tarik Skubal – their dominant ace and Cy Young Award winner who is heading into his final year of team control. The mere suggestion left Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast hosts stunned during their recent episode, with cleveland.com Guardians beat reporter Paul Hoynes exclaiming, “Oh, this is crazy. This is what happens when a contender, a good team takes that next step, becomes a playoff team and their players start running up against free agency.” The implications for Cleveland and the entire AL Central can’t be overstated. Skubal has been virtually untouchable over the past two seasons, particularly against the Guardians. As Hoynes noted during the podcast, “In the last two years he’s struck out 228 batters in 2024 in 192 innings. And this year he struck out 241 batters in 195 1/3 innings. This guy’s not only a really good pitcher, but he’s a workhorse as well.” More Guardians coverage Baseball’s new managerial path: Recent players like Kurt Suzuki are skipping the minor league ladder Will Dodgers’ dominant pitching silence Toronto’s potent lineup? Who’s the Browns’ best rookie so far? Why the deck is stacked against the Guardians: Terry’s Talkin’ podcast The Tigers’ dilemma represents the modern baseball conundrum: do you pay your homegrown superstar the going rate (projected at $300+ million over 10 years), or maximize prospects in return while his value is at its peak? Detroit isn’t a small-market team – they’ve shown willingness to spend in the past – but this decision goes beyond finances into strategic team building. “The Ilitch family has money all over the place,” Hoynes pointed out. “They’d they’d have to sell a lot more pizzas keep Skubal in Detroit. But I think they’re willing to do that.” What would a return for Skubal look like? Joe Noga, cleveland.com Guardians beat reporter, suggested the price would be steep: “You would think that Skubal right now would command at least three top 100 prospects. So you’re talking about really depleting one franchise’s farm system.” For Cleveland, this has immediate implications beyond just facing an elite pitcher less often. As Noga explained, “You watch this and the idea of trading one of the best players on your team before you absolutely have a gun to your head and have to, that also affects Cleveland who’s considering even trading a Steven Kwan.” Skubal leaving the division could potentially open a competitive window for Cleveland, possibly influencing their approach to extending their own stars. Hoynes speculated that Detroit moving Skubal “perhaps that even makes them more interested in keeping Kwan and signing him to a multi-year deal within their grasp.” The most likely scenario? Hoynes and Noga lean toward Detroit keeping their ace. But the mere possibility of Skubal being dealt represents a fascinating inflection point in how successful teams approach roster building in modern baseball. For the full discussion on Skubal’s future, the potential return package, and how this affects the Guardians, check out the latest Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. Podcast transcript Joe Noga: Welcome back to the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. I’m Joe Noga, joined by Paul Hoynes Hoynsey. We’re getting close to the start of the Fall Classic, the World Series set to begin on Friday night. We’ll get to a preview of game one of the World Series coming up a little later on. But first, gotta, gotta address what would, what would seem to be a wild, crazy rumor or at least a situation that you kind of shake your head and scratch your, your noggin on the, the rumor out there, the word out there, the speculation out there is that the, the det Tigers, one of the Guardian’s chief rivals in the American League Central, would consider, or maybe are considering trading the Cy Young candidate, Cy Young winner Tarek Skubal this off season. This is his final, he’s approaching his final year of team control of arbitration eligibility and he’s about to win his second consecutive American League Cy Young Award. For Skubal, you know that he’s this close to free agency. He’s this close to being out there chasing the big dollars on the open market. But what motivation would the Detroit Tigers have right now for trading pretty much the most dominant left handed pitcher in, in all of baseball right now and doing it at a time when you’re coming off of a second consecutive trip to the American League Division Series? Paul Hoynes: Oh, this is, this is crazy. This is what happens, you know, when, when a contender, a good team, you know, takes that next step, becomes a playoff team and you know, their players start nudging up against free agency. Google can be a free agent after the 2026 season. Joe, I can’t. I would be stunned if Detroit traded him. Isn’t Scubal the kind of guy you go after and you try to assign to one of those, you know, 10 year, $300 million deals and lock him up and, and he’s, you know, he’s your lightning rod for the next at least five, six, seven years. He’s, he’s the guy that’s going to take you to the promised land. Joe Noga: Yeah, I guess it’s, it’s sort of playing devil’s advocate. It’s sort of, you know, the, the way of thinking is can you maximize what you can, what you can get out of him in terms of top 100 prospects in return to try and sustain your run at the top of the division, at the, the eligibility for, you know, a long term, you know, making the playoffs every year? Does, does school give you the best chance to do that with him on the roster or with what he can bring back in return. I think right now, if you’re the Tigers, you got to look at the rest of who you have in the rotation or who you’re projected to have in the rotation for 2026 and say without Tarek Skubel here, do we have enough to, to compete in the American League Central to compete for another playoff spot? They’ve got Casey Mize, Jackson Jobe, they’ve got Troy Melton coming back, all of those relatively young guys sort of at the top of the rotation. They have a player option on Jack Flaherty and then there’s other guys like Kyter Montero, guys who are ready to become full time rotation guys, but they’re going to be learning on the fly during the season. To me, Tarek Skubal is the piece that sort of holds that whole rotation together. And if you trade him in the off season, what’s that mean for your pitching? Paul Hoynes: Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s my, my view of it too, Joe. I mean, you know, we’re not talking about a small market team here. The Ilitch family has money all over the place. I mean, they’ve got to, they’d have to sell a lot more pizzas to, to, to, you know, size Scuba and keep him in Detroit. But I think they’re willing to do that. I mean, what, they just built a brand new arena for the, for the, for the Red Wings. I mean, you know, we’ve seen them spend money, you know, big Miguel Cabrera, they’ve never been afraid to spend money. So that was, that was under, you know, the, you know, the late, the late Mike Ilitch, I believe, but the whole fan, I would, I would imagine the whole family still, still, you know, they put a certain, you know, they’ve got a, they’ve got to keep Google I would think, and the guy. But, and if they don’t, you know, Scott Boros is his agent. So you know, he would, he would love to put this guy out on the free agent market and see what he was worth after the 2026 season. Joe Noga: Yeah. Tarek Skubal, projected by Major League Baseball trade rumors to earn 17.8 million in arbitration this, this January. So you would think that that’s a very affordable price for what you’d be getting if you were a team that traded for him this year. And then it divides the teams that are, would be potential suitors up into a couple of different camps. Are you a team that’s going to trade for him and try and sign him to a long Term deal. And like you said, that’s, that could be 10 years, $300 million or more. No. Or, or are you a team that’s in a sort of a win now situation where you trade for him and if he walks at the end of the season after 20, 26, then you know, you, you’ve either got a World Series pennant or you came close with, with school leading your, your staff. Sort of like what happened with Juan Soto and the Yankees. But you know that, that’s sort of the comparison there. You know, you fall into one of two camps if you’re a suitor for Derek School. Paul Hoynes: Yeah. And definitely Joe. And you know, I mean, if, if they, if you’re a team like you, you were saying if you’re a team that, that goes after school, it’s gotta be with the intention of signing him and keeping him. Right. I mean, like a lindor trade. You, you, you know, you take what’s left on the old contract and try your darndest to extend him for several years after that. Because if, if you don’t, if you aren’t able to do that, you’re just renting this guy for one year, then you know, the, the cost changes and then you’re not giving up. You know, you’re not selling the farm for him. Joe Noga: Yeah, I guess it’s always going to be with the plan to try and keep him long term. But that brings up the question of what would a return for a Tarex Goble with one year of control look like? I guess the, the most. The, the best comparison right now would be what the brewers got a couple years back for Corbin Burns when he was traded with a year left of arbitration control. They got Joey Ortiz, DL hall, and a, a competitive balance pick that fell at number 34. So that’s two top 100 prospects plus a high draft pick. You would think that school right now would, would command at least three top 100 draft prospects. So you’re talking about really depleting any, any one franchise’s, you know, top 100 or top prospects list. You’re talking about taking the top three guys right off of whatever team has in their farm system. So yeah, it’s, it’s a high ask. It’s a steep price. But, you know, that’s sort of what if, if you’re the Tigers, if you’re sitting in that position, you can ask for anything right now for a team that really wants him. Paul Hoynes: Doubt about it. You know, you’re talking about a guy, as you mentioned, is probably the favorite to win A second straight Cy Young award. Listen to this, Joe. In the last two years school has struck out 228 batters in 2024 in 192 innings. And this year he struck out 241 batters in 195 and a third innings. This guy’ only really a really good pitcher, but he’s a workhorse as well. Joe Noga: Yeah. And you know, that’s, that’s the thing is, you know, you’re getting him for somewhere around 30 starts a year. He stays healthy, he, he’s effective and he gives you that opportunity to go out there and win every night that, that he’s pitching. You, you and everybody in your clubhouse that night, you know, walks into the ballpark thinking, you know, we’ve got a really good chance to win tonight because we’ve got the best pitcher on earth, you know, for us, you know, the reason why we’re talking about this. And so it does impact the Guardians. It would be a tremendous impact on the Guardians and their chances to win a third consecutive division title. We saw what Scubal was able to do to those Cleveland a couple of times during the regular season and then in the playoffs as well when, when school is pitching and out there dominating. The Tigers are almost impossible to beat. And that, you know, we’ve seen when he’s not as effective when the, when the Guardians finally do get to him. We saw that at the end of the regular season in a game critical for the Tigers during that series in Cleveland in late September. So, you know, this does have a Cleveland angle to it. There is sort of an impact there. And, and really you sort of watch this and the idea of trading one of the best players on your team before you absolutely have a gun to your head and have to. That also affects Cleveland who’s, who’s looking at and thinking about and considering even trading a Stephen Kwan who’s two years away from his eligibility or his free agency. So you’ve got to sort of weigh all of these things and how, how it impacts the Guardians if Tarek Skubal is, is moved and where he would go. Paul Hoynes: You know, I, if, if Detroit traded Skubal, there’s no way they trade him within the division, do you think? I, I can’t imagine that they, they, they’d be, and if, and if the team that got him was in the division and signed them to a multi year deal, they’d be looking at that, you know, that mistake for five, six, seven, eight years, who knows for how long. So yeah, I mean it would definitely it’s going to affect the Guardians one way or the other. And if they trade them out of the division, that, that, that opens the door for Cleveland because Cleveland is, you know, they, they put, put, they put, you know, the makings of a very, very good rotation together. We saw that in September. Kwon, you know, perhaps that even makes him more interested in keeping Quan for, and, and signing him to a multi year deal within their grasp. They haven’t done that player, but it might change the way this front office and ownership views things. Joe Noga: Yeah, if, if it looks like you, you’ve moved Scubal out of the division and there’s an opportunity there to sort of take advantage and, and stay on top of things. I, I, I, I, I’ve got to imagine that that factors into the equation. I don’t know. I just, the most likely scenario in my mind is that Skubal stays, that the Tigers pony up and that they pay him, they give him some sort of deal that, that keeps him around and this, this guy just comes back and is a menace and you know, a nemesis for the Guardians until, you know, he hits the point where he starts to decline. I guess it’s a, it’s maybe a Verlander situation. You, you took advantage of him as he was learning and growing and becoming, you know, sort of during his, his superhero backstory. You took advantage of those days where he was learning and now he’s at the top of his game and it’s the deciding point. Is he going to be around to be the guy who dominates you for the next decade or does he move on and is he pitching in New York at some point? Who knows? We’ve seen it both ways. So interesting to follow, interesting how it affects Cleveland and the Guardians and their plans and their future and an interesting sort of giving them us, giving us a perspective on Stephen Kwan’s potential future here in Cleveland as well. So we will keep monitoring that situation. Another situation that we’re keeping an eye on and actually one that came out and was, was resolved yesterday. The Angels have a new manager. They have hired former catcher, big league catcher Kurt Suzuki, who had spent the last few years as a special assistant, you know, working in the front office. This is a guy who by all accounts very personable, you know, approachable, a good guy from, from all baseball circles. A guy who, you know, a lot of people had thought had managerial potential. I just, I just don’t know Hoynsy in the, in the situation that he’s stepping into with the Angels and an owner like Artie Moreno, how effective he can be in turning around a culture there and, you know, infusing that, that winning mindset with the Angels. Paul Hoynes: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a tough gig for sure, Joe. No, he. Good thing is he knows the front office. He knows the roster. Haven’t been there for two, three years, as you know, working in the front office, that, that’s a big plus. He’s going to have some credibility because he’s had a long big league career and you know, obviously he’s a catcher and they always say catchers make the best managers. I’m not sure if that’s true, but there’s a lot of catchers that are managing in big league dugouts right now, including Stephen Vogt. But that’s, that’s a team that always seems to be in turmoil to me, Joe. They’re, they’re always hit hard with injuries. You know, they play in a beautiful ballpar. You know, they couldn’t win with Ohtani. They haven’t been to the postseason, you know, in a very long time. They’re, they’re in a tough division with Seattle and Texas. But the one thing we did see from them this, this past season is they can hit. They’ve got some hitters on that team. Mike Trout is kind of seems to be on the back end of his career, but, you know, he even, he, you know, came back when he was healthy, he was still effective. So they can score some runs, but they’ve got to find some pitching. Joe Noga: Yeah, and, and that’s, that’s a big key is finding that pitching. And you know, maybe there’s a trade there that’s a possibility. Who knows? But for Suzuki, what, he won a World Series with the nationals, right? Paul Hoynes: Yeah. 2000, what, 18, 19, what, whatever. Joe Noga: Yeah, and he’s, he’s got that credibility. I think like you said, he’ll know how to handle a pitching staff and how to build a coaching staff, really. So that might help as well. But you’re right about the Angels, man, that’s a, that’s a tough situation they had for a decade. They had the best player in baseball, hands down in Mike Trout, and they add in Shohei Otanius and then they got the two best players in the American League and they still can’t win. I just don’t understand. Yeah, that division is tough. I guess they run into the situation where Houston goes on maybe a decade long run of getting to the ALCS every year and you just can’t get past the, the Astros in your own division. Yeah, it’s, it’s a tough situation. They, they’ve gotta, gotta make some choice changes and bring in a winning culture there and maybe Kurt Suzuki is the guy, but I just, I don’t know if that’s the situation that best suits anybody right now because we saw that even a guy like a future hall of Famer in Albert Pujols isn’t. Either he didn’t want to be in that situation or they didn’t want him or it wasn’t the right fit. Pujols no longer under consideration for the Angel’s job, obviously, but still maybe rumored to go elsewhere. Any of the, the six or seven openings that still remain. Also hearing a former angel, former twin Tory Hunter. He was being considered for the angel spot that went to Suzuki, but either he withdrew or was no longer under consideration there. Still talking, thinking about the Twins as a possibility for Tory Hunter. But the Twins are looking at former Mariners, a manager Scott Service, as are the Baltimore Orioles. They still have an opening and Service possibility there. So a lot of potential movement still out there and still a possibility. Just what do you think of the idea of Albert Pujols, Tory Hunter, guys that were, you know, just recently, within the last, you know, five to 10 years on the field and playing effectively? These are guys who are, could be managing soon. Paul Hoynes: It’s interesting, Joe, I don’t think baseball has changed so much regarding kind of the mana managerial pedigree that you used to know that you used to have to get a job. You know, it used to be former players would retire, they’d go to the minors and manage for six, seven years. Then they get a, become a big league coach and then you get, then you get to be the bench coach and then you’d eventually get a shot at managing. And that whole, that whole kind of up the ladder progression has been done away with basically. I mean, Aaron Boone steps out of what, the TV booth and becomes manager of the Yankees. Stephen Volt works one year as Seattle’s bullpen coach and becomes the manager of the Guardians and does a great job. So, you know, the requirements of the managing have, have really differed, you know, as over the last five, six, ten years. Joe Noga: Didn’t you have to go down to Double A and manage Michael Jordan before you got to become a Hall of Fame? I mean, I don’t get that. Paul Hoynes: And Terry Francona, I mean, Mike Hargrove, he had to manage all the way up the ladder in Cleveland’s farm system, I think starting at a ball. So you know, all the, all that has been that’s not necessary anymore. So if, if the front office feels like a guy like Pujols or Tory Hunter already, I think they give him a shot. But you also have to, I think you, you, you have to be a lot more compliant with the front office now. There has to be a relationship between the manager and the front office and not just the general manager. I mean you have to have a relationship with, you know, 10 analytics guys, two, two assistant GMs, one, you know, pitching specialist. I mean it’s, it’s a job and a half now and there’s only, and the front. And I think the teams, the 30 teams are looking for specific guys now. Joe Noga: Yeah, you talk about those, those guys who had to manage up through the ranks and hit every stop along a franchise’s farm system before they got a, a job as a bench coach. You know, those days are, are gone. And those are the kinds of guys who would bristle at the idea of, you know, the Ivy League educated Bean counters sitting in the office helping make decisions on field, you know, moves and players and strategies. That’s the way the game is now and that’s the way teams have sort of shifted and moved. I go back to my, my, my favorite movie, Moneyball and just the way that the confrontations between Billy Bean and his old time scouts and you’ve got 150 years worth of baseball experience in that room and you’re listening to the. Wrong again. It’s sort of the eternal conflict now with baseball and the decisions here. But maybe Kurt Suzuki is the guy to sort of flip things around in Anaheim and maybe he’s not. We’ll see as they, they roll out the Angels lineup next year. Speaking of rolling out lineups, the World Series kicks off Friday night in Toronto. We know that Blake Snell, left hander, will start for the Dodgers. Still haven’t heard a decision on the game one starter for the Blue Jays. Hoynsey. They’ve got some options in Kevin Gosman, Trusavage, even Shane Bieber. There should be, you know, no lack of pitching at the top of the rotation there. I gotta imagine Bieber’s in line to start game three after just starting game seven on Tuesday night. But you know, they could go with Gosman probably in that, that role. What are you, what are we looking forward to as this World Series gets kicks off? It’s the, the Goliath from the west coast versus the entire country of Canada in, in, in Toronto. Paul Hoynes: Yeah, Joe, it’s going to be, I think it’s going to be A really, really interesting series. The thing that could make this a quick series is if the Dodgers, you know, haven’t lost any mojo from their sweep of the Brewers. Because you talk about a dominant performance. I mean, that’s four. That was four in and out. And the brewers really, after the first game, really never had a chance. You know, they lose the first game, what, two to one? They probably should have won that game because they had opportunities in the bottom of the ninth there. After that, it would. It was like lights out. And it was all based on Toronto’s pit. I mean, Los Angeles is pitching, you know, as you said, you know, Snell, Yamamoto, Otani and the guy from Tampa Bay. Joe Noga: Yeah. Paul Hoynes: And just dominant performance. And the thing is, you know, yesterday we talked about, you know, Toronto’s offense, one through nine offense, you know, you know, led by, you know, Vlad Guerrero, of course, and Springer on top. You know, Milwaukee had a kind of a similar offense as that Joe. They had a 1:1 through 9 lineup and they were just dominated by, by the Dodgers. It’s really going to be interesting to see what, what Toronto’s lineup can do against that pitching staff. Joe Noga: That’s the million dollar question right now, is how does Vlad Guerrero, how does George Springer, the guys that you’re going to rely on heavily, you’re going to have a lot more less experienced players for Toronto trying to, you know, getting their first taste of this World Series stage. So at this point, I think all things are, are sort of equal. It’s going to be a good series. It’s going to be a lot of fun to watch as that gets going. That’s going to wrap up today’s edition of the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. We’ll be back with hey Hoinsey Edition on Thursday, tomorrow and we’ll talk to you then.
