Tigers have another reason to hang up on Yankees after latest Tarik Skubal trade rumors

Tarik Skubal rumors aren't going anywhere, no matter how much the Tigers' front office insists that they're not currently listening to offers.

Vultures have been circling since before Skubal won his first Cy Young, but we can't really even blame executives who continue to check in on his status. They're just doing their due diligence. If the Tigers want them to stop, there's a very simple solution: play better baseball.

The fact that the Tigers' June resurgence went as quickly as it came is almost assuredly music to the Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies, and so on's ears.

According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees have already been in touch again. Although it's a "big long shot," the Tigers are said to have interest in shortstop George Lombard Jr. and pitcher Carlos Lagrange. Heyman wrote the Tigers are generally looking for "controllable pitching and athletic position players close to big-league ready" (which, like ... duh).

Lombard, New York's No. 1 prospect and whose father is the Tigers' bench coach, is basically a no-brainer inclusion. But throwing in Lagrange, who the Yankees started converting into a reliever at the beginning of the month, shouldn't be enough to give Skubal up.

Rumored Yankees trade package to tempt Tarik Skubal away from Tigers still isn't enough

Lagrange has an even better fastball than Yankees' No. 2 prospect Elmer Rodríguez and a wicked splitter, but should the Tigers really settle for a reliever in exchange for one of the best starters in baseball?

The Yankees would never give up Lombard and Rodríguez, who has already gotten his major league debut as a starter, but any real conversation that includes Lagrange needs another arm from further down the pipeline. The Tigers aren't trying to launch another decade-long rebuild, which is why they're looking for major league-ready talent who could help them bounce back quickly after this miserable 2026, but it wouldn't hurt to take one lottery ticket if the Yankees are desperate enough to throw one in.

There's also the question of the other other suitors involved. The Dodgers have a deep, deep prospect pipeline and absolutely zero qualms about weaponizing it in scenarios like these. Arguably, that's all their pipeline is for.

The Tigers have lost leverage since the offseason, given that whoever buys Skubal will only be getting three months of his services including the postseason, but Scott Harris still has most of the power here. It's up to him not to squander it.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow