​The Detroit Tigers are positioned to make a bold move in the MLB trade market as the Aug. 3 deadline nears, following a 4-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics that extended their winning streak to five. That win has the Tigers, who previously struggled, now just 4.5 games behind the first-place Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Guardians in the American League Central and only 3.5 games out of the AL Wild Card spots.
Up to this point, chatter around Detroit centered on the possibility of trading ace left-hander Tarik Skubal before the deadline. With Skubal eligible for free agency after this season and not showing a clear commitment to a long-term stay with Detroit, it would seem prudent for the club to consider moving him now and securing some value in return rather than watching him depart for nothing this winter.
Yet, the market signals remain complicated. FanGraphs currently assigns the Tigers a 36.8 percent chance to reach the playoffs, a benchmark that would be hard to meet if Detroit decides to trade a two-time AL Cy Young Award winner when a postseason berth remains within reach. As FanSided’s Robert Murray observed, the Tigers’ recent surge has them logging some of the best offense and starting pitching in baseball, with a bullpen that has shown marked improvement. If Detroit keeps producing at this level, the conversation could flip from selling to buying, placing Scott Harris in a tough spot: should the Tigers chase one final push with Skubal or trade him before free agency to maximize value?
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale highlighted the shift in sentiment after Thursday’s win, noting, “The Tigers win again, their fifth in a row, and they are 21-12 since June 1. Sell? They could be buying.” This growing optimism adds another layer of complexity to the decision on Skubal.
As of Monday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel had estimated an 85 percent likelihood that the Tigers would trade Skubal. With each additional win, those odds could be decreasing, but the choice remains fraught with implications: trading a premier pitcher while still in playoff contention versus keeping him to chase a deeper run and a potential postseason push.
The Tigers will look to maintain momentum on Friday when they host the Philadelphia Phillies, continuing what has already become a high-stakes, momentum-building stretch of games. In the broader MLB landscape, teams are recalibrating in the final weeks before the deadline, and Detroit’s path could hinge on whether their current form translates into a sustained playoff pursuit or prompts a decisive reshaping of their pitching corps.