Though he didn't take it down to the wire, Scott Harris said there was indeed "a bidding war" for Tarik Skubal ahead of Monday's trade deadline. And "the organizations that were involved were extremely aggressive."
"They put in what I believed to be their max offers, and then they added to those offers," Harris said. "It got to a point of almost audible pain when they actually produced their best bold offers."
That was on Saturday night. And when the Tigers weighed the offers in front of them, Harris said they had to make a "really tough" call -- "and it wasn't unanimous."
"It wasn't like, 'Hey, there's this one deal, the Dodgers will do this.’ There were multiple deals here, and it was a really tough decision," Harris said.
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The offer they liked best came from the Dodgers. The Tigers got three prospects, including two in MLB Pipeline's Top 100. Zyhir Hope, ranked No. 25 overall, was the headliner, a slugging outfielder with 20-20 potential who could be in Detroit next season. But the deal-sealer for the Tigers might have been River Ryan, No. 68 overall, who fit their desire for a young, controllable starting pitcher.
The 27-year-old right-hander, who posted a 1.33 ERA in four starts with the Dodgers in 2024 before undergoing Tommy John, isn't slated to hit free agency until 2031. He should make his Tigers debut later this season.
The Brewers were also in on the bidding. With dreams of pairing Skubal with Jacob Misiorowski at the top of their playoff rotation, Milwaukee offered the Tigers three high-ranking hitting prospects, per Brewers beat writer Adam McCalvy, at least two of whom are in the Top 100, according to MLB.com.
The package was headlined by High-A shortstop Luis Peña, who ranks No. 18 overall. It also included either Triple-A infielder Jett Williams (No. 76) or Double-A outfielder Josh Adamczewski (No. 87).
It did not include No. 1 overall prospect shortstop Jesus Madé, and is not believed to have included outfielder Luis Lara (No. 64), who recently signed a seven-year extension with Milwaukee after being promoted to the bigs.
More importantly to the Tigers, the package didn't include a controllable Major League-ready starting pitcher. Milwaukee has three such arms on its roster beyond Misiorowski in Logan Henderson, Kyle Harrison and Brandon Sproat.
"The Dodgers ultimately had the best deal and the one that fit us best, and we were excited to pull the trigger," Harris said.
