Tarik Skubal endorses The Athletic’s (actually pretty decent) WBC proposal

He seems to be on board...

Nick San Miguel

Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal during spring training at TigerTown in Lakeland, Fla. on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

While Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal is embroiled in a mini-controversy over his decision to only make one start for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, he has endorsed a plan to try to make the WBC event better.

Jayson Stark of The Athletic recently proposed that the WBC should start in March in the middle of spring training like it usually does, and then finish in the middle of the MLB season in July.

Stark proposed his idea to Skubal, and the two-time reigning American League Cy Young Award winner's biggest question was how long the All-Star break would be. Stark said it would have to be about eight days to try and cram in all of the All-Star festivities as well as the final three rounds of the WBC.

Baseball is set to return to the Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles, and Stark thinks that if major league players are allowed to play, the WBC should copy whatever template is used for that event.

Stark argues that moving the conclusion of the event to the middle of July will get more eyeballs on the tournament, since there is not as much going on in the sports world in the middle of July (meanwhile, the WBC currently has to compete with March Madness).

Tarik Skubal is seemingly on board with new WBC proposal from Jayson Stark

Skubal definitely had some questions about the finer points of Stark's plan, but he agrees that having the WBC in March creates a lot of problems — so he seems to be on board with a change.

Of course, Skubal may be regretting his decision to only make one start for Team USA. He has taken fire from those who think that he is not being patriotic by pitching for his country as much as needed in the event, but he is clearly listening to agent Scott Boras who does not want to jeopardize the potentially record-breaking contract Skubal could earn this offseason.

That contract will almost certainly not be offered by the Tigers. The team is seemingly preparing for life without Skubal after 2026 as evidenced by the Framber Valdez signing so the next time Skubal pitches in the WBC it will probably be with another team.

Team USA is in a good position to win it all after advancing to the semi-finals, so if the team wins then maybe Skubal's decision to only pitch once will not look quite as bad.

Nick San Miguel

Nick San Miguel has been writing at FanSided since 2017. He began as a contributor writing about the San Francisco Giants at Around the Foghorn and became a Site Co-Expert for AtF in 2024. He writes at several MLB sites at FanSided. A die-hard Bay Area sports fan born 10 minutes from Levi's Stadium, he has also written about the San Francisco 49ers for Niner Noise as a contributor since December 2023. In October 2025, he joined Blue Man Hoop as a contributor to write about the Golden State Warriors. He graduated with a degree in History from San Diego State University and is now based out of Chicago. He is the same age as Oracle Park.