The trade became known mid-game. Detroit was still playing the Oakland Athletics on Saturday night when word spread that Tarik Skubal had been dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers. By Sunday morning, players were back in the clubhouse trying to process it while getting ready to play again.
Manager A.J. Hinch did not pretend that was easy. According to Yahoo Sports, Hinch acknowledged the difficulty of moving on quickly. "There's an element of this that's a little cold," Hinch said. "You just got to get back to your routines and get back to playing."
The emotion in the room was not easy to contain. Skubal had become the face of the franchise, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who developed from a ninth-round draft pick into one of the most feared pitchers in baseball.
Casey Mize, who was drafted in the same 2018 MLB Draft class as Skubal, felt the departure more personally than most. Mize went first overall that year. Skubal lasted until the ninth round. Despite those different starting points, the two pitchers made their major league debuts on the same day during the shortened 2020 season and watched each other's careers develop from close range.
Mize reflected on what set Skubal apart. "You could say that would be easier for me to strive for with the pedigree or whatever, whereas when guys are later-round draft picks it can be really easy for them to say, 'Man, I want to be a big-leaguer,'" Mize said. "I don't think that was ever going to be good enough for Tarik."
He also put the trade in the context of what Skubal meant to the franchise's recent history. "In the last couple years we don't get anywhere without Tarik Skubal, and I hope our fanbase is appreciative of that, even if maybe it didn't end the way that everyone wanted it to," Mize said.
Riley Greene kept his reaction short. "It sucks," Greene said. That sentiment reportedly spread through the clubhouse Sunday morning. But Greene also made clear the Tigers were not going to let the trade change their direction. "It's not going to affect what we're doing," Greene said. "It can't."
Spencer Torkelson described Skubal as one of his closest friends on the roster. "It was definitely sad. [Skubal's] one of my best friends, one of my favorite teammates of all time. … It just sucks to see him go. But, you know, [his trade] doesn't change what we're trying to accomplish as a team," Torkelson said.
Detroit entered Sunday sitting 2½ games behind the final American League wild-card position, with a plus-52 run differential that showed the team had not stopped competing. The season still has something left to play for, even without the pitcher who anchored the rotation for the last several years.
