BALTIMORE—Detroit left-hander Tarik Skubal is everything you can ask for in a starting pitcher, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Thursday night at Camden Yards.
What’s so special about the 28-year-old Skubal?
“Everything,” Hinch said. “He’s an ace. Everything he brings to the table on any given night is either near or at the top of the league. His hunger to be better than the last start is arguably second to none.”
Plus, Skubal is one of the best bargains in the league at $10.2 million this season. He has one season of arbitration remaining in 2026, and one way or another, he will earn a hefty raise. Then free agency beckons in 2027.
For much of the last two seasons, Skubal has been compared to Pirates’ Paul Skenes, as the two are among the best young pitchers in Major League Baseball. Skubal won the American League Cy Young Award last year, and he’s the odds-on favorite to win it again. Skenes in his debut season was named NL Rookie of the Year and earned the start for the NL in the All-Star Game.
But Skenes, just 23 and earning $875,000, receives more attention than Skubal, who doesn’t seem to care.
“No offense to the media,” Skubal said. “I could probably do without all of it. I like to play the game. I don’t like seeing stories posted with narratives that just seem to be created. What other people have to say, I don’t put much weight into it. I’d just rather play baseball.”
Skubal, who is 7-2 with a 1.99 ERA this season, is not as electric as Skenes, but he certainly is as efficient, proving it on a warm 88-degree night with 12 groundball outs, two walks and only six strikeouts in a 4-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles. He threw 98 pitches, only 24 of them balls, giving up three hits during seven shutout innings.
“I compare him to Clayton Kershaw when he was young,” Tigers veteran right-hander Jack Flaherty said. “He was right at you: strike one, strike two. Like Kersh, he rarely walks anybody. He has hitters right on their heels. Add his preparation and competitiveness, and he’s everything in a pitcher you can ask for.”
To Flaherty’s point, Skubal leads the league with a 74.2% first pitch strike rate, meaning his first pitch to almost three-fourths of the batters he faces is a strike. Consequently, batters are hitting only .197 against him, 47 points below the league average.
Still, Skubal’s most explosive pitch of Thursday evening came on a full count to Colton Cowser with two outs and runners on the corners in the second inning. It was a 98-mph four-seam fastball that Cowser swung through as it rose in the zone. Strike three, inning over. That’s a good heater, but Skenes has been known to throw a dozen 100-mph fastballs in a game.
No matter, Skubal said.
“I thought I was fighting myself early,” Skubal said. “As the game went on I thought I got better.”
In the last four games, Skubal has allowed only one run on 15 hits with the two walks and 32 strikeouts. He hadn’t walked a batter since May 20, and his two-walk game Thursday was his first with multiple walks since he strolled three at Seattle on April 2. Hinch quipped afterwards, “Maybe we’ll have him work on some things.”
But really—he’s walked nine batters this season in 14 starts, an average of just two ticks below one walk per nine innings. He’s whiffed 105, as opposed to 92 for Skenes.
“If you draw up the characteristics of a starting pitcher you want to headline your rotation, he’s going to have all of it,” Hinch said. “He wasn’t quite perfect [Thursday night], but if that’s your off day and you throw seven scoreless, I’ll take it.”
Skubal starting the All-Star Game in Atlanta for the AL on July 15 would add another nice feather in his cap. But he will have to contend with fellow left-hander Max Fried, who is 9-1 with a 1.84 ERA in his first season pitching for the New York Yankees.
The two pitchers have their respective clubs vying for the best record right now in the AL, let alone MLB. Detroit is 45-25.
Skenes is 4-6 with a 1.88 ERA pitching for a 28-41 last-place Pirates team that just doesn’t score any runs for him. He won’t start the All-Star Game again.
For his part, Hinch doesn’t want to hear much about Skenes.
“I don’t rate them,” Hinch said when asked to compare Skubal to Skenes. “I’ll take my guy over anybody. It’s not a knock on [Skenes]. I know he’s really good. I got a chance to meet him, and he’s a terrific guy and a huge competitor. It’s a great thing for the league to have both guys on the mound. The only time you don’t like it is when you’re in the other dugout.”
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