Why Everybody Should Be Detroit Tigers Fans Through August
A great 2026 season for the Detroit Tigers might be sneaky important for the League.
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Tarik Skubal will make $32 million to pitch for the Detroit Tigers this season. It should be the hope of both Tigers fans and baseball fans alike that the two-time American League Cy Young Award winner pitches for the Detroit Tigers and the Detroit Tigers alone this season.
As of this writing, Fangraphs’ playoff projections give the Tigers a 75 percent chance of making the playoffs this season. In the AL Central, there are three teams projected to win fewer than 80 games, the only division in baseball where this is projected to be the case. The AL East is jam-packed with want-to-be contenders, and the Tigers are projected to win more games than all of them. There is a real possibility that if all goes right for Detroit this season, the Tigers will be the top seed in the AL this fall. That would be a very nice story for what is in all likelihood the final year Skubal dons a Tigers uniform.
I wrote last week about why the Baltimore Orioles made the most sense as the team that signed former Houston Astros ace Framber Valdez. Instead, it was the Tigers. With Valdez, the Tigers have a strong four-man rotation in Skubal, Valdez, Casey Mize, and Jack Flaherty. 400 innings between Skubal and Valdez should mean Detroit can win 90-plus games this season. Detroit has won 88 regular-season games five times across my tenure on this planet – the club made it to the World Series twice, the ALCS twice, and the ALDS once. Good things have happened for Detroit when they’ve reached at least that magic number of 88 over the last thirty-four years.
You hope this all comes together for the Tigers this season. What you don’t want is a situation where things spiral for the Tigers this season, particularly before Aug. 3 – MLB’s Trade Deadline. Outside of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who we will get to in a moment, you could talk yourself into so many different divisional winners and playoff teams this season. It should be highly competitive across so many divisions.
Everyone in the AL East could win the AL East. Three or four teams could make the playoffs out of the AL West. The NL East could have three playoff teams. Four different teams could win the NL Central. The 2026 MLB Postseason chase has all the potential in the world to be superb the last couple of months – as long as the Tigers and Dodgers don’t ruin things.
There is already so much uncertainty about the 2027 MLB season. Will there be a lockout, and will we lose games? If so, how many? Will there not be a work stoppage at all? Your guess is as good as mine, but that uncertainty is both real and unavoidable this season.
The Dodgers have won back-to-back championships. The worst thing that could happen to what could be a great final sprint towards the postseason for the League is a Skubal-to-the-Dodgers trade. That would not guarantee a three-peat for Los Angeles, MLB’s postseason is beautifully wonky in that way. However, it would feel that way going into the postseason.
And most folks would understand both sides of it. The Dodgers have the best farm system in baseball. The Tigers, were they to flame out this season, would be foolish not to entertain a trade that would send Skubal to the Dodgers for The Sake Of Baseball Vibes. I get anxious just thinking about writing what a Skubal-to-Los-Angeles trade package would look like – it is probably best not to write that into existence. It must be stated that were such a deal to go down this summer, Detroit would get quite the haul from Los Angeles.
The Dodgers are an older team. Injuries happen, and could happen, which might make them more inclined to give up a hefty trade package to the Tigers for Skubal. Starter Tyler Glasnow pitched just 90.1 innings last season. Starter Blake Snell threw 61.1. You don’t have to squint too hard to envision a scenario where the Dodgers’ starting rotation is a huge question mark right around the trade deadline. This could absolutely be a situation where the Dodgers have both the means and the need for Skubal, as frustrating as that might be for every non-Dodger fan across the globe.
It’s only February, though. As it stands, the Tigers have assembled a team that can make a World Series run this year in Skubal’s swan song in Detroit. The Dodgers might have the means and the need for Skubal in August. They might also have a bigger need in the lineup, depending on who stays healthy there in Los Angeles. Six of their nine projected starters are 30-plus, and huge offseason signee Kyle Tucker has averaged 106 games played the last two seasons. Both teams’ seasons could go a variety of different ways. Let’s just hope it doesn’t involve a mid-season trade that sends Skubal to the Dodgers.