Tigers fans aren't buying Tarik Skubal's disingenuous comments on return after Dodgers trade

For Tigers fans, there's been a sick satisfaction in watching the Dodgers flail since the trade deadline. On Friday night, they lost their seventh game in a row after a walk-off two-run homer for Ryan Waldschmidt off of Edwin Díaz. They've only lost seven straight twice in their last nine seasons.

They lost with Tarik Skubal, the crowning jewel of their trade deadline, on the mound for his Dodgers debut. Meanwhile, the Tigers are just two games out of a Wild Card spot and have the third-best run differential in the American League.

Skubal himself hasn't walked the line between old Tiger and new Dodger very well since the trade deadline. He got emotional when talking about leaving his teammates in Detroit, then started tooting LA's horn as soon as he landed. Tigers fans are upset with him for reportedly making no effort to negotiate an extension; Dodgers fans are upset that he keeps talking about the Tigers.

His latest sin — for both fandoms — was telling the Pardon My Take podcast that he "hopes those negotiations can pick back up in November. [...] Hopefully they're involved with everything. I would love to return."

It's a nice sentiment, but it might be too little, too late for Tigers fans.

Tarik Skubal's pleas for Tigers to be involved in his free agency are hollow to Detroit fans

Some of this reaction is outsized. There are myriad reasons why Skubal was never going to be open to a contract extension unless the Tigers gave him the $400 million he projects to fetch in free agency (which they would never do).

He sits on the MLB Players Association's executive subcommittee and is expected to set the market, especially when we're barreling toward a lockout. Skubal was never going to take a hometown discount — nor should he, really — and Scott Harris and Detroit's front office were never going to step out of their comfort zone to give him what he's unanimously expected to make.

However, Skubal saying he'd love to come back still feels mean, in a way. He should know better than most that the Tigers aren't going to be aggressive in his free agency, if they're involved at all. Harris once said that he didn't believe in a Skubal window, so he won't break his back trying to reopen it. Troy Melton's ascent, Jackson Jobe's return, and Cameron Flukey's addition to the farm system gives him three good reasons to let the Skubal era be officially over.

Skubal's gone. Some fans are rightfully hoping that he just stays gone instead of twisting the knife.

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