MLB writer proposes win-win Tarik Skubal scenario for Tigers that sadly will never happen

Tarik Skubal's timeline to return from surgery is entirely up in the air, and the Tigers won't even be able to give it their best guess until after he's actually undergone the procedure. Two to three months is standard, but it all depends on how his elbow reacts and rehabs.

MLB personalities are already saying everything Tigers fans don't want to hear. On Injury Territory, host Edward Egros said, "It makes you wonder if he's gonna be pitching in a Tigers uniform ever again."

The Tigers are going to do everything they can to try to get Skubal back on the mound — their season might depend on it — but from his and Scott Boras' standpoint, the terrible truth is that it might be behoove him to sit out for the rest of the season.

That would be a move Tigers fans would never forgive, but if he's looking out for his own best interests, why risk hurting his market by coming back to potentially pitch poorly or exacerbate a health issue?

FanGraphs' Dan Szymborski had a proposition for Skubal and the Tigers: give him a one-year, $45 million extension to keep him in Detroit in 2027, allowing him to weather any fallout and rehab from this surgery with a massive guaranteed salary while reaping the benefits if he bounces back well.

FanGraphs writer had a bold idea for Tarik Skubal, Tigers in the wake of surgery announcement

It's a nice idea, but there's almost no way that Boras would let something like that happen. Skubal will be 30 in 2027 and likely doesn't want to push free agency back any further. There's also the risk of a lockout and a salary cap if the owners get their way; Boras and Skubal will be doing anything they can to get a new contract signed under the existing rules (or lack thereof) as quickly as possible in the event that happens.

Tigers fans have already resigned ourselves to the fact that this is going to be our last year with Skubal, which has made losing him for any length of time so uniquely frustrating.

The window for extending Skubal for any length of time has long been closed — if it ever existed in the first place. The best Tigers fans can hope for now is that he recovers well and we're all able to laugh at our own outsized panic in a few months' time. But keeping him beyond this year? It's just not going to happen.

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