Tarik Skubal Could Reportedly Be Traded to These 4 Teams

The good news for the Detroit Tigers: back-to-back Cy Young-winning pitcher Tarik Skubal is ahead of schedule and could be on the mound again before the All-Star Game.

The bad news for the Detroit Tigers: the season might already be over by the time he returns.

Detroit gambled by coming into the final season of Skubal’s contract, hoping that the ace, along with the addition of Framber Valdez, would help Detroit contend for an American League pennant.

With Skubal injured, the already middling Tigers have cratered to the bottom of the baseball standings, with it seemingly becoming more inevitable by the day that the reigning Cy Young winner will be traded before this year’s deadline.

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And USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported on Sunday that, after speaking with executives across the league, he believes there are already four finalists vying for the superstar pitcher in the coming summer months.

At the top of the list is the most obvious: the Los Angeles Dodgers, who’ve been linked to Skubal for the past year. For a team trying to make history by being the first National League franchise to ever three-peat as World Series champions, the addition of Skubal would be the final upgrade to a roster already overflowing with talent.

Another unsurprising name is the New York Yankees, who are a strong contender in the American League but are still licking their wounds from losing to the Dodgers in the World Series two years ago. Trading for Skubal and adding him to an already potent rotation of Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole, and Carlos Rodón could be the difference if the two cross-coast rivals meet again.

Then the two dark horses: the San Diego Padres and the Toronto Blue Jays. Both similar to the Yankees, who have lost to the Dodgers before in the playoffs, and not only would Skubal help them contend to stop the three-peat, but also stop L.A. from having arguably the greatest pitching rotation in the sport’s lore.

Tarik Skubal, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow. With how things are going in Detroit, there’s an actual possibility of that five-ace rotation coming to fruition.

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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 3:13 PM.