Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal has only made on start since recovering from an experimental elbow surgery, but he didn’t hold back when addressing the team’s current level of production.
He recently spoke to The Detroit News and said the Tigers need to play better, or else the team could get shaken up near the trade deadline.
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“The reality is we need to play better baseball or else, come the deadline, you give the front office an option to reassess where this team is,” he said. “And if they don’t think what we have is a World Series- or playoff-caliber team, then the whole team is going to look different. That’s just the nature of the beast.”
Detroit currently sits at last in the American League Central with a 30-44 record coming into Friday, 6.5 games out of the last wild-card spot in the AL.
Amid the lack of team success, trade rumors surrounding Skubal have skyrocketed over the last month.
With less than two months to go before the Aug 1. trade deadline, Skubal said now is the time for the Tigers to pull it together.
“The future for a lot of people in this room — not just myself — the outlook could look very much different in two months and it all comes to an abrupt end,” he said. “We still control our destiny a little bit. We still do.”
James Parker is a sports writer for Ball Exclusives, follow him on X @TheJames_Parker
