AJ Hinch has heard it before. He’ll hear it again. Probably in every city the Tigers visit between now and August 3.
The question: Is Tarik Skubal getting traded?
Hinch, Detroit’s manager, was asked again recently during an interview with the New York Post. He didn’t offer much beyond what he’s been saying for weeks. “I am shocked that’s a topic,” he said, dripping with sarcasm. “I mean, I’m shocked you would ask that. I only get asked that in every city that we go to, you know, by some of the writers and I say the same thing, ‘I don’t know.'”
It’s not that Hinch doesn’t care. It’s that there’s not much he can actually do about it. The trade deadline is circled on everyone’s calendar, but Hinch isn’t the one making calls on Skubal. His job is to manage the guys in the clubhouse right now.
“Everybody thinks they have access to your best players,” Hinch said. “And then the reality sets in of like, you win a series, then you sweep a series, then you win another series and you look up and you feel like you’re in it.”
The Tigers are 47-53 entering Tuesday. That puts them fourth in the AL Central, 6.5 games back. They’re 4.5 games out of a Wild Card spot. That’s not impossible but it’s not exactly comfortable either. A bad May put them in this spot and they’ve been trying to dig out since.
Skubal is the kind of pitcher every contender wants. Left-handed, stuff that plays in October, under team control beyond this season. Other teams have called. The Tigers have not confirmed any serious talks, but the rumor mill keeps churning.
Hinch’s message to his players is straightforward: control what you can. “It’s just a long time between now and then,” he said. “We got a lot of baseball to play. We put ourselves in this situation where we have to talk about it because of the record and how poorly May went. But I keep preaching, ‘Control what you control’ to our guys and ‘Play the games.’ We will see where it leads us.”
Winning would help. A lot. If the Tigers go on a run between now and August 3, the conversation shifts. Maybe they keep Skubal and make a push. Maybe they still move him if the offer is massive. But the noise gets quieter when you’re winning.
Right now, the noise is loud and it’s not going away. Hinch knows that. He just can’t do much about it except manage his team and hope the answers change.
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