Former GM's take on Tigers trading Tarik Skubal sucks the fun out of baseball

In a recent column for The Athletic, former MLB general manager Jim Bowden did not mince words when it came to the Detroit Tigers' trade deadline strategy:

"The Tigers need to trade their ace, Tarik Skubal."

Bowden certainly isn't alone in his opinion, but his reasoning is disheartening – and flawed, for that matter. He blames baseball's new collective bargaining agreement for lengthening the path to contention for rebuilding teams, saying the Tigers should sell high on Skubal now and kickstart their rebuild. This argument might be more sound if Skubal was in the twilight of his career, but he is young, impactful and under team control for two seasons beyond this one. Wouldn't trading him set back Detroit's rebuild timeline even further?

And for the record, the Tigers' situation is not nearly as dire as Bowden would have you believe. Sure, they're six games out of the third American League wild card spot and probably won't be making any noise in the playoffs this year, but with Skubal on their roster, they have a foreseeable window for contention. They have some key core players already in place, including All-Star outfielder Riley Greene, second baseman Colt Keith, and starting pitcher Reese Olson; trading Skubal would effectively send the message that Detroit is giving up on those players in some capacity, too.

While he acknowledges that the teams in question are in different stages of the rebuilding process, Bowden lumps Skubal into the same category as Chicago White Sox ace Garrett Crochet and Oakland Athletics closer Mason Miller, which hardly seems fair. Chicago and Oakland don't have a window and should absolutely sell high to speed up the rebuilding process, while Detroit does have a window that would effectively slam shut if Skubal were to be traded.

Jim Bowden's take on Tigers trading Tarik Skubal sucks the fun out of baseball

Bowden's take falls in line with the unfortunate (but pervasive) trend in the MLB insider community of encouraging continued tear-downs rather than holding onto rare success stories. What's going to happen when the prospects the Tigers receive for Skubal – who are statistically unlikely to match his talent, mind you – become stars at the major league level? Is Bowden going to ask Detroit to sell them, too, if they aren't exactly where they need to be as a team?

It must be demoralizing for Tigers fans to see MLB insiders begging their team to ditch the one thing that's really making this summer worthwhile for them, all because of the potential promise of 2027.

Bowden's colleague, Ken Rosenthal, gets it. On a recent episode of Foul Territory, Rosenthal called the Tigers trading Skubal "just a 'give up' type move." If you're Detroit, selling your biggest star to the highest bidder isn't the only option. Why not try to win with him?

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