Detroit Tigers Prospect Profile: Get to know Tarik Skubal

With the Detroit Tigers season once again not looking all that great, we look to the farm system to see who could be on track to be part of the organization’s future. 

LHP Tarik Skubal, while playing for the Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers, has been a really nice surprise for the Detroit Tigers organization during this 2019 minor league season. In fact, the lefty struck out two batters during his one-inning appearance in the Florida State League All-Star Game in June.

With the top pitching prospects for the Tigers all being right handed, Skubal’s development this year could be key moving forward. It is always good to have a mix of left handers and right handers in the rotation and he could bode nicely from the left side in the future for the Detroit Tigers.

Some thought the Tigers got a steal when they selected him in the ninth round of the 2018 Draft. His red flag was he had Tommy John surgery that forced him to miss all of 2017 and led to a dip in his numbers during his final year at Seattle University. While getting back to his pre-Tommy John form and getting that control back, this year he has become the pitcher he was once projected to be.

The 22-year-old carries a 4-4 record with a 2.70 ERA through 73.1 IP so far in 2019.  He’s striking out batters at a high rate of 31.27% and 11.17 K/9 and is limiting hard contact with only 4 home runs given up on the year while doing a good job of getting ahead in the count.

I have really been impressed with how Skubal has pitched during the month of June. In his four starts this past month, he surrendered only 1 earned run, contributing to a 2-0 record and 0.39 ERA over that span and a selection to MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Week on June 10.

This is the kind of later round prospects that the Tigers can hopefully hit on during these drafts to bolster our farm system even more. I would expect him to stay in Lakeland for the rest of the season because of the plethora of pitching talent in Double-A Erie currently, but don’t be surprised if he plays the last few weeks of the season there. He then will most likely open the 2020 season in Erie and go from there.