Scott Harris confirms depressing moment Tigers trade deadline sell-off was decided

While there’s been a lot of controversy and anger about how the Detroit Tigers went about things at the 2026 trade deadline, president of baseball operations Scott Harris confirmed what led to Detroit selling key players.

Harris said that the front office made the decision to trade ace Tarik Skubal after the recent series against the Orioles, which ended on July 29. Tigers fans will remember how heartbreaking that final game of the series was as it wound up being Tarik Skubal’s final start in a Tigers uniform.

Skubal pitched well, as he made it through 6 2/3 innings and was pulled from the game with the Tigers up 7-1. Calamity ensued after that as Detroit collapsed and lost the game to the Baltimore Orioles by a score of 10-9 in extra innings.

It was an encapsulation of everything that’s gone wrong for the Tigers this year and ruined what should have been a nice send-off for Skubal after everything he’s done in a Tigers uniform. But maybe it was the perfect metaphor for the entire situation in the end.

Tigers made right decision to sell, but how they went about it is questionable

One can understand why Harris and the front office were probably so disgusted by that unraveling that they planted their flag in that moment. No one watching that game seriously thought the Tigers were a legitimate playoff team if that's how they were handling their business at such an important juncture in the season.

On the one hand, this makes Harris look a little better because one could argue he really thought the Tigers could be a playoff team and was waiting as long as possible to determine what to do with Skubal.

Ultimately, coming to the conclusion to sell Skubal and Casey Mize is understandable, but the way Detroit went about it is going to remain indefensible to many. With the return for Skubal from the Los Angeles Dodgers being unspectacular as it was, it raised eyebrows across MLB. The Tigers could have waited longer and tried to get the Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, and Tampa Bay Rays into a bidding war. They decided against that and struck a deal on Saturday night.

However Tigers fans feel, they can at least point toward the objectionable performance that did the team in. And it's hard to argue with the thought process.

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