Tarik Skubal's final pitch of the season was a 101 mile-per-hour fastball to strike out Mariners star Cal Raleigh. He walked off the mound in Game 5 of the ALDS with a 2-1 lead, having thrown 99 pitches through six innings. The Tigers were nine outs away from the ALCS.
An inning prior, Skubal had talked it through with Tigers manager A.J. Hinch and decided that he would empty the tank in the sixth. His day was done. Hinch, who called it an "easy decision" to pull him, brought in reliever Kyle Finnegan in the seventh and the Mariners promptly tied the game, eventually winning it in 15 innings in the longest winner-take-all game in MLB history.
On Wednesday, about a month later, Skubal won his second straight American League Cy Young award. He was asked shortly thereafter if he ever wonders if he could have gone back out for the seventh to help his team across the finish line. He said the threat of Jorge Polanco, who had hit the ball hard against Skubal, including a pair of homers in Game 2, played a big part in the joint decision to turn it over to the bullpen. Polanco was due up second in the seventh.
"I think just the way the game was going and obviously the way the at-bats had gone with Polanco, even in Game 5 he hit a foul homer, I just don’t think that matchup was going to be in the cards that night," Skubal said. "Obviously, there’s decisions that get made, and me and A.J. are always on the same page. I really respect everything that he does, he’s got a plan for everything going on.
"And trust me, I’ve seen a lot of the stuff that fans are disappointed or whatever, but it’s just the way the game of baseball is. I’m going to go out there and compete. I gave it everything I had, I knew my outing was kind of coming to a close there, and with Polanco, he would have been the second hitter in the next inning. Hindsight’s 20-20, right? If you could write a perfect script, we would obviously go do that, but it’s the game of baseball, too."
Skubal's season high in pitches was 105, which he had exceeded in Game 1 of the wild card series with 107 when he pitched into the eighth inning in a win over Cleveland. While "I would love to throw 300 pitches every time out," Skubal said, "I just don’t know if that’s realistic, especially in that setting, and with the lead, too, we have nine more outs and I trust our guys in the bullpen 10 times out of 10 to end a game like that."
"Obviously it ends up going 15 innings and we came out on the wrong side of it," he said. "At the same time, everyone competed and we left it all out there, including myself. And as an athlete, that’s all you really can do."
Now attention shifts to Skubal's future. His name is swirling in rumors and trade speculation as the Tigers ponder how to proceed with a pitcher who might command more money on the open market next winter than they're willing to give him. For Skubal, it's reminiscent of 2022 when his name first popped up in rumors ahead of the trade deadline when the Tigers were said to be open to moving him -- for a haul -- under former GM Al Avila.
"I think a lot of it is similar to how 2022 went, and a lot of that is out of my control, especially the trade stuff," Skubal said. "Obviously contract extension stuff is a little bit different, but the trade stuff is out of my control. I’ve given everything I have to this organization and I want to be a Tiger for a very long time, but those things, the business side of the game, they’re just different. I don’t get to write my own contracts, in that sense. So I’m just going to do what I do and not really focus on any of that stuff. I’ve seen it. It’s not going to impact how I go about my day to day, it’s not going to impact how I’m going to attack my offseason and try to become the best version of myself coming to spring training next year.
"It doesn’t change that I love the city of Detroit, and hopefully I’m here. That’s where I’m at with all that."
If the Tigers let him get to free agency, Skubal, who turns 29 later this month, could walk for upwards of $50 million per year from a team like the Yankees, Mets or Dodgers. But if they trade him now, it would severely diminish their chances of winning a championship next season.
"We go 5 games against Seattle and we’re just a couple outs away and a couple pitches away from going deeper into a season, maybe an ALCS appearance, and then who knows what can happen in a best-of-7," Skubal said.
The possibilities still gnaw at him.
"That’s just what I think about a lot, is just making a few different pitches and maybe getting a zero here or getting through this hitter a little earlier there and getting our team in a better position, not only myself but our team, to pitch deeper into ballgames," Skubal said. "I’m proud of the guys, I’m proud of our season, but obviously we came up short of what we wanted to do, and that’s to win a championship.
"So that’s where I’m at mentally, and that’s a ton of motivation going into this offseason for me personally and I know for our guys. Ending the season on a loss is not a fun thing. You want to end the season on a win."