The Detroit Tigers have been one of the best surprises of the season to this point.
Detroit is 37-20 on the season so far and has the most wins in baseball. On top of this, the Tigers have 2024 American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal who is shining once again. This is a team that can make a run and is going to get talked about a lot.
Detroit looks like a serious contender and therefore it’s going to be the subject of some wild trade speculation. That is the case around the league and it already has begun.
The Pittsburgh Pirates aren’t trading Paul Skenes, but his name has been thrown around a lot already. The Athletic’s Jim Bowden continued this on Wednesday and proposed a hypothetical package for the Tigers to land Skenes.
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“No. 4. Detroit Tigers,” Bowden said. “Proposed package: OF Max Clark, SS Bryce Rainer, RHP Jaden Hamm, RHP Owen Hall. This potential Tigers offer would give the Pirates solutions up the middle with two former first-round picks: Clark, a 20-year-old center fielder, and Rainer, a 19-year-old shortstop, both of whom should develop into All-Star caliber players. Clark could be promoted to the majors soon with the Pirates moving Oneil Cruz to right field and Reynolds to left field. Rainer is a few years away. And the Pirates would also receive two solid pitching prospects in Hamm, 22, and Hall, 19, who are currently pitching at Double-A and Low-A, respectively.
“For Detroit, just imagine a rotation headed by Tarik Skubal and Skenes — the double SKs. The Tigers could roll out those two aces, followed by Jackson Jobe, Casey Mize, Reese Olson and Jack Flaherty. That rotation would make them the American League favorites this October.”
It would be nice, but isn’t happening.
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