The case for the Tigers to take a hybrid approach with Tarik Skubal trade rumors

Tarik Skubal is on his way back to the Tigers. Barring any unforeseen complications (knock on wood), he should be lined up to return to the major league mound on Saturday, for Detroit's second game against the Guardians in Cleveland.

It couldn't have come at a better time. The Tigers don't look as desperately in need of saving through their first seven games of June as they did through the entire month of May, but it's precisely for that reason that Skubal's return feels so good. He was never going to be able to put the team on his back entirely, and they're finally looking like a squad that doesn't always need him to win.

If the Tigers keep winning at the rate they've established at the beginning of this month, everyone will have to put their trade proposals away and go back to the drawing board. Joe Ryan is a perennial candidate once again having a nice season — why not go talk to the Twins?

The Tigers have reportedly been telling other teams that, for the moment, they're not listening on Skubal after their hot start to June. This makes sense, to a certain extent. With just about two months to go before the deadline and things looking up, why panic and let the vultures start circling early?

Former Brewers GM Doug Melvin, as the guy responsible for bringing CC Sabathia to Milwaukee in 2008 — three weeks before the trade deadline — had an interesting take. "If I'm the Tigers," he said. "I'd think about putting Skubal out there right now."

Brewers GM responsible for CC Sabathia trade urges Tigers to consider Tarik Skubal deal ahead of trade deadline

Of course, the buying Brewers are the ones who came out on the other end of the Sabathia deal looking like the winners, even if the four players who went back to the selling Indians turned in semi-respectable careers.

But the point to take from Melvin might be this: maybe the Tigers should start listening right now and gather information but make no promises. They might as well see how far interested teams would be willing to go, right?

There's also the unpredictability of Skubal's performance to consider. Although he looked great in his rehab assignment, he was facing High-A batters. It's going to be a whole new thing when he gets back to the majors.

The second that other teams start to catch whiffs of a declining Skubal, his value will go down.

It's going to be a very, very tough line for Scott Harris to walk. As poorly as Tigers fans tend to feel toward him, he's in an unenviable position. But Harris is the one who kept saying "I can't do my job without listening" at Winter Meetings, much to fans' chagrin. If there's a time to apply that philosophy, it might be right now, when the Tigers are still very much in limbo.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow