ESPN’s trade deadline candidate list has Tigers being absolutely gutted in August

The 2026 American League is so hopeless that it's impossible to say exactly how the postseason picture is going to shake out. If it started tomorrow, the Mariners would win the AL West and have the first Wild Card spot with just a .507 winning percentage. The Blue Jays would have the fourth Wild Card spot with a sub-.500 record.

10 out of 15 AL teams have losing records. Only 6.5 games separate the league's worst — the Angels and Royals — from the Blue Jays.

Basically, the AL is an incredibly tough watch across the board, but everyone is so bad that it's impossible for anyone to fully give up hope yet.

That's the world the Tigers are living in right now. They're just barely better than the Angels and Royals (six games back of a Wild Card spot), and this is still anyone's game. They're 4.5 games behind the AL Central's third place Twins, but all it could take is a bad week for Minnesota and a good one for Detroit.

Accordingly, Scott Harris and the Tigers front office have reportedly told other teams that they're not currently listening on Tarik Skubal. While that might be true, insiders and fans alike aren't convinced that the Tigers will avoid selling before or on the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

Of course, a deadline where the Tigers are sellers is going to be the Skubal Show. But Jeff Passan included not just Skubal but eight other Tigers who could be out the door.

Jeff Passan's trade deadline big board includes nine Tigers players

Gleyber Torres and Casey Mize are also in Passan's top 25 at 14 and 16, respectively, with Torres a "best fit" for the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks, and Guardians (ugh); and Mize a best fit for all of the Braves, Padres, Cubs, Brewers, White Sox, A's, Cardinals, Rays, Diamondbacks, and Blue Jays.

Kenley Jansen (No. 43), Drew Anderson (No. 52), Justin Verlander (No. 56), Jack Flaherty (No. 67), Zach McKinstry (No. 92), and Jake Rogers (No. 99) round out the rest of the list.

Basically, Passan went through the Tigers' payroll and plucked out every single player on an expiring deal. Hooray.

The likelihood that the Tigers trade all of them is slim-to-none, but Skubal (No. 1 on Passan's list), Torres, and Mize seem very likely to go, even though all three have dealt with various injuries throughout the season so far.

The Tigers and the rest of the terrible AL do have the luxury of time. Because everything is so close and things can turn on a dime, they could push their luck and wait until the last possible second to open up to trades, hoping that their teams get their acts together in the meantime.

It's not impossible, but we're not holding our breath.

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