Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal has addressed the trade chatter around him as he enters his final season before turning free agent in the fall. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Phillies are getting linked to Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Landon Knack.
Let’s get into the details.
Tarik Skubal Sends Clear Message Amid Swirling Trade Talks
After the Tigers signed Framber Valdez in free agency, it became all the more evident that the franchise is thinking about trading Tarik Skubal before losing him for nothing at the end of the season. The trade speculations are on the rise, and the two-time back-to-back Cy Young winner recently talked about it.
During his appearance on Ben Verlander’s Flippin’ Bat podcast, Skubal said the current situation is out of his control and he can’t stress about it.
“I want to make sure I word this right ’cause I don’t want to get taken out of context, you know,” Skubal said. “It’s not that I was worried about getting traded ’cause obviously that’s out of my control, but it’s one of those things you can’t really worry about it. And I don’t want that to sound like I didn’t want to be a Detroit Tiger. That’s not what I want that to sound like. I want it to sound like it’s out of my control, so I can’t really stress about it. You know, it does me no good to have it impact my offseason workouts or have it impact my day-to-day life. It’s just something I can’t focus on.”
Skubal also added that more than him, his loved ones are worried about his future.
“But you know, sure, it crept into my mind,” he added. “I’ve seen a lot of stuff, whether it be true or I don’t know what was reported or how factual a lot of that stuff was. But yeah, I mean I saw it, I definitely saw it. As far as it impacting me, try to not. You know, I think I spent a lot of time answering questions from family like, ‘Hey, are you going to get traded?”
It’s clear Skubal has heard a lot of trade rumors, but as he said, it does him no good to let the speculations impact his offseason preparations.
Phillies Linked to Landon Knack With Dodgers Rotation Squeeze
The Phillies need help in the pitching department and the Dodgers are one National League team who have abundance of depth in that area. With Zack Wheeler expected to open the year on the injured list, the Phillies need to fill a spot at least for the early part of the season.
Reporter Nick Deeds named Dodgers’ Landon Knack as a potential option that the Phillies could look at. He also named Cubs’ Javier Assad, Tigers’ Keider Montero, and Giants’ Hayden Birdsong as potential options if not knack. All these options could be considered by the Phillies if they want to give competition to Andrew Painter for a potential spot on the 40-man roster.
Deeds also said that given the value of the resource of starting depth, there’s a very rare chance, if any, of the above mentioned pitchers will be traded. As a result, it would take a properly motivated Phillies to get the job done, meaning they would have to offer a lot if they want to get their hands on one of these pitchers.
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has already ruled out free agents such as future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer.
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