Wild Tarik Skubal trade deadline report will have Tigers fans fuming over Dodgers deal

You've heard the news. The Detroit Tigers ended up selling at the 2026 deadline by trading both Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize to National League West teams, but a recent report about how the Tigers reached out to the Los Angeles Dodgers to get a deal done will infuriate Tigers fans.

Per Fabian Ardaya and Katie Woo of The Athletic, the Tigers reached out to Los Angeles on Saturday night in order to get a deal done. That’s the night that the two sides agreed to the trade that sent Skubal to Southern California in exchange for River Ryan, Zyhir Hope, and Brady Smith.

There was a lot of anger and confusion at the time since that return seemed pretty paltry for a player of Skubal’s caliber even though he is going to be a free agent after the season, but the fact that it was the Tigers who seemed eager to get this deal done with them is truly bizarre ... especially so far away from the Monday 6 p.m. deadline.

This comes after reports that the Tigers were not even entertaining a dialogue with teams on Skubal until late in the process and gives the impression that they wanted to give Skubal to the Dodgers all along.

Maybe if one wanted to give the Tigers the benefit of the doubt, they just really fell in love with Ryan and Hope and are absolutely confident that they’re going to turn into productive big league players. 

Yet, the truth seems a bit more sinister. There was the weird situation with Skubal saying he withheld injury information from the team and he seemed to imply it was some sort of retaliation for the arbitration case, so maybe the Tigers just wanted to get rid of him.

Then there were also the reports that Skubal wants to sign with the Dodgers in free agency, which may have scared off any other teams who feared they’d have to give up a lot for a guy who would only be around for a couple months before joining the league's best team anyway.

New report makes one wonder what Tigers were thinking with Tarik Skubal trade

It’s just such a frustrating situation for Tigers fans because one would think they’d entertain any and all offers and probably wait until the deadline in order to drive the asking price up. That would be the smart way to do it because maybe you get a team to give up an absurd package.

Yet, the Tigers opted for their odd route which is going to be dissected and debated for a long time, especially if these three prospects don’t turn out to be anything special.

All of baseball is rightfully mad at the Dodgers, but this report will undoubtedly make Scott Harris and the Tigers some sort of villain as well.

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