Tarik Skubal issues "obvious" clarification on MRI comments

A day after he made headlines, Tarik Skubal offered what he feels is an obvious clarification.

When Skubal told The Athletic in a story published Wednesday that he held off on getting an MRI on his troublesome elbow last winter ahead of an arbitration battle with the Tigers, with the belief that the arm would heal on its own, he admitted that "if I could go back, I probably should have got an MRI in January and hammered it out to where I was done with it in the offseason."

Instead, the injury required surgery in May and Skubal missed several weeks of the season when the Tigers needed him most.

“But there were also other factors in play," Skubal said in the article. "I was going through arbitration. The decision by the organization to take me to court, I think that probably had some impact subconsciously.”

Speaking to reporters Thursday in the Tigers' clubhouse, Skubal was asked about those comments and explained, "That’s just hindsight. It’s just common sense."

"I thought (the elbow) was trending in the right direction throughout this whole process, I had a hiccup in January that I didn’t know what was going on, I thought it was just some different soreness, I had never dealt with anything like that before, and we were trending the right way. That’s the reason there was no MRI, there was no discussion of an MRI," Skubal said. "I continued to make starts, I continued to be a good player and I felt like I was doing our team a good job, and then had that incident in Atlanta and the next two days weren’t great. That’s why I decided to have an MRI and have the surgery.

"That whole (comment) was blown out of proportion, and that’s fine. I get it, but a lot of it is not true and not factual."

The harshest takeaway is that Skubal put himself in front of the team, which is not the player he has been over seven seasons with the Tigers. His critics say that he put off an MRI so as not to jeopardize his chances of winning his record-setting arbitration hearing with the Tigers where he was awarded a $32 million salary this season after the club offered him $18 million, and lived with the consequences later in the year.

Asked which parts of the reaction are untrue, Skubal said, "Me denying an MRI," before deciding, "I just don’t even need to address it, to be honest, because I’m not going to play that game with you guys or with those people."

"But a lot of things that are said about me are not true. It is what it is, though. I understand it. But yeah, of course in hindsight I would have done an MRI in January if I knew that this thing wasn’t going to get better, but I didn’t (know that). I thought it was getting better for three months until it wasn’t."

He added: "You think that (clarification) would be more obvious than it was, but it is what it is."

Skubal is the hottest name in baseball as the Aug. 3 trade deadline nears. Whether the Tigers decide to keep him or sell him ahead of free agency will hinge largely on how they fare in the next 10 games, starting with a seven-game homestand that began Thursday night against the Royals.

He did acknowledge Thursday that the Tigers' decision to take him to arbitration last winter changed the dynamic of his relationship with the organization, led by president of baseball operations Scott Harris.

"Of course when you take a player to arbitration, there’s not a ton of positive things that come out of that process relationship wise. I think that’s pretty obvious," Skubal said. "But my relationship with the coaching staff and the players and my teammates is the same as it's always been, and that’s how it’s supposed to be. But as far as going through that process and sitting in that room, you guys should go experience that for yourselves."

Not enjoyable?

"No," said Skubal. "But it is what it is. It’s the business of the game, and you understand that business and baseball are two separate things and you try to keep them separate. I feel like I've done a good job of that. Just worried about doing my job and going out there and competing and trying to put our team into position to win a baseball game."

When Skubal takes the mound Friday night in Detroit, it could mark his final home start with the Tigers.

"Yeah, that might be reality a little bit, but also five days later is another one at home," he said. "I don't know what the rotation or how that’s going to shake out, but hopefully I’m throwing more home starts just in general, not because of the trade deadline. I like pitching at home. That will set in when it needs to set in, not right now."

As for his belief in this Tigers team, Skubal reiterated that he'd prefer to stay in Detroit through this season in hopes of chasing a World Series this fall. The Tigers entered Thursday 4.5 games back in the wild card race with five teams to jump and 6.5 games back in the division with three teams to jump.

"I think we have a chance to win a World Series, I’ve said that since spring training," said Skubal. "That belief in this team has never changed. Obviously we’ve put ourselves in a tough situation, but we’ve come out of that situation playing really good baseball and yeah, going into spring training, the whole offseason, I’ve never been more motivated to try and win a World Series for this city, the team that drafted me in 2018 and helped develop me. That’s always been the goal, and that will never change unless I’m told I’m on a different team."

As of Thursday, the Tigers had a 32.5 percent chance of making the playoffs, per FanGraphs. Asked if being traded to a team with better odds would be alluring, Skubal said, "I don't know if I believe the odds. I’ve been on a team where we had a 0.2 percent chance to make the playoffs and we did it, so I’m not going to speculate on percentages.

"I think once you get there, it’s really hard to win a World Series. You just gotta get in, and I think that this team has all the pieces to be able to do that."