Tarik Skubal injury just sounded the alarm on Tigers' 2026 trade deadline

The Tigers took the latest in a long line of injury blows on Monday, when they announced Tarik Skubal will undergo an arthroscopic procedure to remove loose bodies in his elbow. There's no timeline to return yet, but 2-3 months is the general consensus.

Outside of the myriad reasons why this is very bad for the Tigers in the short-term, Detroit can basically kiss a blockbuster trade deadline goodbye. The other players they could dangle as rentals — Casey Mize, Jack Flaherty, and Gleyber Torres — are hurt, bad, and not great, in that order.

Tigers fans have been almost unanimously and furiously against the Tigers dealing Skubal, and anyone trying to change tacks and claim that they ever believed otherwise in light of this news is almost certainly lying to you.

What we can acknowledge is that Skubal would've been a safety net. If, for whatever reason, the Tigers had not been able to come through by the trade deadline and postseason hopes were slim, at least they could still net a decent return for Skubal.

No one is overpaying for this guy now.

Tarik Skubal's surgery just eliminated the Tigers' biggest trade deadline safety net

During the offseason, it was believed that the Tigers were looking for the kind of return that the Padres sent to the Nationals in exchange for Juan Soto. While that was always a little unrealistic due to the disparity in team control remaining (two and a half years for Soto, one for Skubal), and his price was never going to get that high in an in-season trade, they probably wouldn't even get a shadow of that deal now, given the circumstances.

We'll remain optimistic and say that it's still unlikely that the Tigers find themselves in a spot where they would even want to trade Skubal at the deadline. A lot can happen in the next three months, but if the Tigers offense can continue to click and the bullpen can get a few more things right, the Tigers may be able to hold on in a still very winnable AL Central.

But we'll forgive anyone who isn't in the mood to be optimistic. The Tigers just lost their best pitcher in what is almost definitely going to be his last year wearing a Tigers uniform.

For now, Detroit just needs to take things a day at a time. It might be the only way we'll all stay sane.

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