1 major Tigers concern after series loss to Yankees, 1 promising development

The Tigers dropped two out of three to the Yankees this week, marking their first series loss at Comerica Park in a month.

Detroit is still 12-8 in June, an unfathomably improved record from the 6-22 they put up in May. The Yankees are the best team in the American League for a reason, so it's hard to get too angry with the Tigers for this particular loss.

Still, it still feels like the Tigers are kind of in limbo. They've gotten some of their mojo back and have added an actually impactful piece to the offense, but there's still a lot to be concerned about.

1 major Tigers concern after series loss to Yankees, 1 promising development

Tarik Skubal has given up a concerning number of homers since returning to Tigers

Tarik Skubal gave up just four hits during Wednesday's rubber match. Unfortunately, three of them were for hiome runs. Paul Goldschmidt — who is now a baffling 7-for-13 with four homers against Skubal in his career — hit two solo homers, and Jasson Domínguez tacked on a two-run shot after Ben Rice picked up a single.

Since coming back from his surgery and IL stint, Skubal has given up six homers in 16 innings. Wednesday marked his first time giving up three homers in a game since 2021.

Skubal was always going to under a microscope in his return, no matter how minimally invasive his surgery might've been. For the Tigers, it's a question of whether or not he'll be able to help get them out of the whole they dug in his absence; for everyone else, it's a question of how much they'll have to offer the Tigers for him at the trade deadline.

The good news is that he does seem properly healthy — that incident on Wednesday turned out to be a very funny fluke — but if his current struggles last much longer, it's going to become harder for fans to believe that he's just shaking off some cobwebs.

Ben Malgeri is looking as solid as fans hoped since being called up

On the bright side, Triple-A standout Ben Malgeri looked great in his first two games in the major leagues. He was called up on Tuesday, when the Tigers seemingly ran out of patience with Trei Cruz, who failed to record a hit in his first five major league at-bats. Malgeri, who is not ranked like Cruz, went 2-for-3 in his debut and singled on the first pitch he saw.

While he still looks a little swing-happy, he also offered his first sign of clutch potential with a game-tying sac fly in Wednesday's series finale.

The Tigers gave up on Cruz quickly, so it feels fair to assume that Malgeri is also going to have a pretty short leash until he proves that he deserves otherwise. At least it took him not time at all to make some progress.

On top of some nice at-bats, Malgeri's first impression on Tigers fans was when he fielded a fly ball in right and made a perfect throw to the infield to save a run. These are little things, but they're what ultimately end up building trust quickly with fans and the organization.

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