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Tarik Skubal for Cy Young again? Tigers ace at spring training early and ready for repeat
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- Tarik Skubal for Cy Young again? Tigers ace at spring training early and ready for repeat
LAKELAND, Fla. — Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal reported early to spring training.
The 2024 American League Cy Young winner who achieved the AL pitching Triple Crown arrived approximately 10 days before Wednesday's mandatory report date for pitchers and catchers at the Tigers' facility. He has already thrown a live batting practice session on the TigerTown backfields.
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In 2024, Skubal received all 30 first-place votes en route to winning the AL Cy Young Award unanimously.
Can Skubal repeat in 2025?
"Unanimous is pretty special," Skubal said. "I'd love to do that again."
SUPPORT SYSTEM: How Tigers' Tarik Skubal matured into an Opening Day ace with Cy Young potential
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws during spring training at Tigertown in Lakeland, Fla. on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024.
Skubal talked to the Free Press — joining the Feb. 10 episode of the "Days of Roar" podcast — about his award-winning 2024 season, the way he attacks hitters, joining the MLB Players Association executive subcommittee, the free-agent market and his goals for the 2025 season, among other topics.
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(On the podcast, Skubal also discussed fatherhood, a lesson from former teammate Jordan Zimmermann , what he thinks about rookie Jackson Jobe , creating a 1-2 punch with fellow starter Jack Flaherty , and how his wife, Jessica, surprised him for his birthday.)
[ MUST LISTEN: Make "Days of Roar" your go-to Detroit Tigers podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts ( Apple , Spotify ) ]
How do you reflect on personal and team accomplishments in the 2024 season?
"What I was able to accomplish individually, I think that's pretty special — to win a Triple Crown and a Cy Young in a career, not that many people in the history of the game get to say they've done that. To be able to put my name in that list is pretty special. But I'm more proud of what our team was able to accomplish. Going from that 0.2% (postseason odds) to making a serious push and almost being in an ALCS, a championship series, was pretty special and speaks volumes to the guys that we got in the clubhouse. You can highlight my numbers and how I pitched, but I'm pretty proud of the resilient group that we had. We kept battling back and winning games. Honestly, it took a lot of pressure off me down the stretch. I knew what was going on. You're not oblivious to a Cy Young and a Triple Crown race. But (the postseason push) was able to give me focus on trying to win each and every day, especially on the days I pitched. It simplified my process a ton. That's something that I'm proud of."
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WHAT HE SAID: Tigers' Tarik Skubal accepts 2024 AL Cy Young Award
Detroit Tigers' Tarik Skubal throws in the first inning vs. the Chicago White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field on Thursday, March 28, 2024 in Chicago.
What have you done this offseason to prepare your body for 200-plus innings?
"The biggest goal for me every offseason, especially after a healthy season, is restoring your body back to normal. As the season goes on, the wear and tear of a season is normal. It happens to everybody. It happens in different ways to everybody. But it was important for me to get back in the weight room and restore my body to being back to normal and being an athlete, and not so much just being a pitcher. Goal one was get back to being an athlete and being athletic and getting strong and building that foundation. Right now, I'm pretty much back on my five-day routine. I think it's important for me to become an athlete, make my body feel good, restore some range of motion that may have been limited from a long season in different joints of the body, and then the throwing program starts up. I've done the same throwing program since my rehab (from flexor tendon surgery) in 2023, and it's been great for me in terms of volume and build up and progression. I know my routine of the maintenance work that I need on my arm and the rest of my body. I stay consistent in that. It's easy to have a routine and develop something that works, but it's harder to go in there and do it every single day, even the monotonous tasks that you may not want to do, like a warm up or whatever it is. Stuff gets a little repetitive and boring, but falling in love with that pays dividends big time, especially coming off a long season with 200-plus innings for the first time in my career. The goal is to do that every year that I play, however many more years I get to play the game. That's where my mind is at, and that's the goal of an offseason. Now it's switched a little bit to being a pitcher and starting to command the baseball the way I want."
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How did the Tigers, led by president of baseball operations Scott Harris, teach you the seam-shifted wake changeup in 2023?
"It was a grip and cue change. That's really how simple it was. They showed me a grip. I'm sure you've seen the baseballs with the black dots all over them. I feel like they're everywhere now. Everyone plays catch with them, including myself. You can put a black dot on pretty much every baseball and chase shapes — sliders, fastballs, curveballs, sweepers, everything. For me, it was very easy to chase something. You throw it, and you can either see it or you don't, so it's either good or bad. Your brain makes the connection right away, like it's a good one or a bad one, and let's try to throw as many good ones as we can and try to limit the bad ones. That was presented to me because I do supinate. I don't really pronate great. I wish I could supinate a little bit better. I'm kind of right behind the baseball, which is why I can carry a four-seamer. But (the new changeup) has been a great pitch for me. I get nine righties (in the opposing lineup) almost every time, and if there are lefties, they're typically the dogs, like the best left-handed hitters in the game, and they probably handle left-handed pitching maybe a little bit less than right-handed pitching, but they still handle it. So it was a big pitch as something to go left (arm side) to get guys to swing-and-miss. It's important to be able to generate whiffs when you need them in certain situations, and that pitch has been great for me. It's honestly helped my fastball be even better. It's helped my slider be even better. It's helped my curveball be even better. It's helped everything."
Your sinker usage and location has changed over the past three seasons. How did it become an up-and-in weapon to right-handed hitters?
"It's a pitch that's hard, and it's got a lot more horizontal action than my four-seamer. My four-seamer plays pretty true, if not a little bit cuttery (like a cutter). The feedback that you get from hitters when they stand in is that they think (the four-seamer) cuts a little bit, even though the numbers say it doesn't. (The sinker is) something that runs back to the left (arm side), and it's something that makes the plate look even wider. If they have to respect the heater that's starting in at them and then back onto the plate, they got to get their swing going a little bit earlier. It's a timing thing, too. It opens up a ton for me — sliders to the back foot, sliders to the back door, heaters away, changeups away. Really, changeups anywhere because if they're trying to get a heater in, you got to be on time for 97 (mph), which opens up changeups and opens up spin back door. It's been a huge pitch for me. It's just something that makes the plate look winder than it is, and that's the name of the game, especially in today's era of the strike zone being the smallest zone it's probably ever been in the history of the game. Being able to make the plate look a little bit wider than it is, it's a huge advantage."
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REMEMBER WHEN: Tigers ace Tarik Skubal selected to 2024 MLB All-Star Game for first time
Do you have to adjust the way you attack hitters in 2025? Or can you keep doing what you did in 2024 with the hard stuff inside and the soft stuff away?
"That's what is beautiful about the game of baseball — just because I accomplished what I did last year doesn't mean I'm going to have the same success this season, or it's going to be the same recipe. I'm always looking to fine tune some things and command the ball better. Pitch execution, for me, is everything. If I'm executing pitches and sequencing things and keeping guys off balance, I just don't really think it matters how much they know about me or what their approach is. If I execute my pitches and get into my counts, I don't really care who is in the box and I'm going to go right at guys, but that's just how confident I am in my stuff. Obviously, the game of baseball will make you adjust, and it'll humble you pretty quickly if you stop trying to work and get better. So that's where I'm at mentally. I'm going to force the game of baseball to make me adjust and read hitters, but I'm also going to be working on my craft and trying to execute as many pitches in a row in an outing. I like my odds in terms of what's coming out of my hand."
Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal receives the 2024 AL Cy Young Award during the 2025 BBWAA Dinner at New York Hilton Midtown on January 25, 2025 in New York on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025.
How did you get elected to the MLB Players Association executive subcommittee?
"You get nominated. I was nominated by ( Texas Rangers second baseman) Marcus Semien , and then you go to a vote, and you vote on it. I'd been asked about it earlier (in my career), and I was like, ' No, I don't think it's for me .' It's time consuming. And then you get asked about it again, and then players want you in certain roles, and it was an honor to be nominated by Semien, a player of that caliber and his history within the PA. Once that happened, I was like, ' All right, I'm going to buy into this and try to do it to the best of my ability .' How you do anything is how you do everything. It should be really good for my career understanding the business side of the game a little bit more. It's good for our club too, just being able to relay information straight down, and it's good for the PA as a whole. I think me and the other seven guys on the committee are going to be very positive for the game of baseball."
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ANALYSIS: Could Tigers ace Tarik Skubal become first $400 million pitcher in MLB history?
You're a free agent after the 2026 season, and you're a part of MLBPA leadership, so what have you learned from watching the free-agent market over the past couple of years?
(Examples provided: Juan Soto turns down 15 years, $440 million in 2022, then he signs for 15 years, $765 million in December 2024; Pete Alonso turns down seven years, $158 million in 2023, then he signs for two years, $54 million with an opt out in February 2025; Blake Snell signs for two years, $62 million with an opt out in 2024, then he opts out and signs for five years, $182 million in November 2024.)
"It's been good to watch and good to see guys get rewarded for the product that they put on the field. I think with everything, there's probably a lot of overreactions and a lot of stuff that people don't understand or don't really get from an agent side or from a player side of where guys want to play, all that stuff. You see with the ( Los Angeles ) Dodgers , right? A lot of guys want to go play there because they have a great organization, and they know they're going to win, and they're going to have a ton of success, and they're paid pretty well to go there and play. Those are big goals as a player. You want to win, and then you want to get paid for your services. That's the goal in baseball. It'll be good to be in conversations and have some input on CBA stuff going forward (with the collective bargaining agreement expiring Dec. 1, 2026). I'm excited to learn a lot of stuff. But a lot of the (free agency) stuff is kind of an overreaction. I think a lot of stuff that you see in the media, I don't know how true a lot of the stuff is in terms of where guys are getting sources or rumors, or this guy going this place, or this guy going that place. It's the media's job, though, and I totally get it. It's good to see Juan Soto-like contracts too. He's an extremely great talent, probably a no-doubt Hall of Famer, and at 26 to see him make the mount of money that he made, to see those dollars get sent out to a player like that, it means our game is in good shape for owners to be able to spend like that. I like where the game of baseball is at, and I look forward to doing my part and seeing where we can get better."
How has the Tigers' pitching development evolved since you were drafted in 2018, with A.J. Hinch, Chris Fetter, Robin Lund and Scott Harris all joining the organization within the past five years?
From top down, there's a ton of structure, especially on the pitching side. You should see the itinerary of everyone's day. It's crazy how detailed it is, the plan they put forth into every single player, every single pitcher, myself included — this is what we think you do well, this is what we think you don't do well, and this is your plan. It's very in-depth in terms of how last season went, and where we think you can get better, and where we want you to stay the same. It starts at the top with Scott, but A.J. is a great pitchers guy. He is a starting pitchers best friend. He'll let you earn it. If you want to pitch deep in the game, don't give him any reason to take you out of the game. I love that. I love that out of a manager. And then Fett, obviously, is great at his job in terms of preparation and game planning. And then Lundy has his role with me. I talk mechanics and how my body is moving with Lundy, and pitch designs and pitch shapes. He's very important in terms of the role that he has for me. Even the people in the analytics room, they're great with everything. I want to see how my body is moving here, or I want to get some Edgertronic (high-speed video) on this pitch because it feels a little weird, or let's compare me from last month to this month. They do all of that stuff behind the scenes. The Hawk-Eye (technology) reports are pretty available now, so I like to look at mine and make sure I'm not developing any bad habits. They're great at all that stuff. As an organization, it's been great. You have all the resources and all the avenues to go out there and try to be the best version of yourself, and as a player and as a pitcher, that's all you can really ask for."
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CRYSTAL BALL: Ten predictions for Tigers in 2025: Cy Young repeat, MVP contender, rookie troubles
What are your personal and team goals for the 2025 season?
"I didn't really have a ton of goals last year. I didn't really have a ton of goals the year before. I think the main goal for me is just to be healthy. I think underneath that goal, there's a lot of stuff that goes into it in terms of the day-to-day routine, how I'm sleeping, what I'm eating, how I'm taking care of myself between starts, the routine in the weight room, the routine in the training room — all of that stuff flows into that. So that's the main goal for me. If I'm healthy, I can work on things, and when I'm healthy, I think the stuff coming out of my hand is pretty good. The goal for me is to be healthy every single season. As far as the club, the goal is to treat this season like we did the last six weeks of last season, where we were just there to win every single game. We were able to do that. Once you start doing the things that you're trying to do, like win every single game of every single day, you get the buy-in from all 26 guys and however many guys are coming up and down. The goal is to play competitive baseball, play really good baseball from March 27th on and set us up to have a really fun summer. The playoffs, A.J. said that when you play in them once, you want to play in them every single year the rest of your career. That's something I don't plan on missing, another playoff. When you get there, the energy and the atmosphere is great, and it brings out the best in every single guy. I'm excited for all that."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tarik Skubal for Cy Young? Detroit Tigers ace set on repeat
