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Tarik Skubal is the best pitcher in baseball. The Detroit Tigers ace has won two straight Cy Young awards. Now, he’s hurt. The pitcher is going to have surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow. He’s set to miss some time. It comes as the Tigers are ramping up for a playoff push, perhaps the last with Skubal as he ramps up for a potentially historic free agency this winter.
Tarik Skubal gets hurt at almost the worst possible time
This is not Tommy John surgery, which would be a death knell for the Tigers and any team (Yankees, Dodgers, Mets) who might court him in free agency this winter. Tarik Skubal won’t be out for a year or more. The estimated timeline for return is a few months.
That means he should be back in time for a playoff push and the postseason, should Detroit survive long enough without him to remain in the hunt. However, this will definitely impact his prospects. No team is going to balk at signing him. He’s still that good. However, what was likely to be a historic price might dip.
Even if he returns to form and pitches well after the surgery, he is still “damaged goods,” so to speak. Any elbow injury to a pitcher is cause for concern. In theory, it makes his reinjury risk a little higher. That’s a big factor so close to free agency. With only, at best, months to show he’s perfectly healthy as opposed to a full season or more, his price will likely dip.
He’s still going to get paid, and he will still have plenty of suitors, but this is an unfortunate blow. He was on his way to a third consecutive Cy Young award, and with three in a row heading into free agency, the price could’ve been higher than any pitcher in MLB history.
No big concern?
Tommy John surgery is not quite the harbinger of death it used to be for MLB pitchers. Shohei Ohtani has had two Tommy John procedures, and he’s obviously more than fine. Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi are more proof that even multiple surgeries don’t derail a career anymore. So if Tarik Skubal is getting a less risky procedure, then it shouldn’t be a big concern.
Skubal seems to get that. “From my understanding, you just go take it out,” Skubal said when the news broke. “I think length of the rehab is probably just getting your spring training buildup up again, getting your volume up. But the procedure itself I think is pretty simple as far as what I’ve been explained.”
He continued, “Been dealing with some stuff, but I thought it was progressing and getting better. (Sunday) I had something that kind of was different than what I’ve been dealing with. I had some conversations with the training staff, A.J., trying to figure out what’s going on, and wasn’t very comfortable pitching today.”
The Tigers might be left in the lurch without him. His free agency might be off track now as well. But Skubal isn’t worried about what he’ll be like when he returns. He’s confident, and perhaps rightfully so, that everything will be just fine in terms of his performance after recovering.
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