Former Detroit Tigers Catcher Reveals His Player Comp for Young Tarik Skubal
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The Detroit Tigers are incredibly fortunate to have an ace like Tarik Skubal anchoring their pitching staff.
He is arguably the best starting pitcher in baseball after winning the American League Cy Young Award in 2024. It was a runaway, as he was unanimously voted the winner with good reason.
Skubal made 31 starts, finally putting to rest the concerns over his durability after he made only 36 the previous two campaigns combined. He completed the pitching Triple Crown, leading the AL in wins (18), ERA (2.39) and strikeouts (238).
The strikeouts were the most in baseball, as were his win total and 6.4 WAR. His .818 winning percentage, 170 ERA+ and 2.49 FIP were also tops in the AL.
It was a truly dominant campaign for Skubal, who has quickly gotten back on track in 2025, replciating that level of success after two shaky outings to begin the campaign.
Through four starts, he has thrown 23.2 innings with a 2.66 ERA and 25 strikeouts. He continues exhibiting elite control with only four walks, resulting in excellent ratios of 1.5 BB/9 and 6.25 K/BB.
In his most recent outing against the Milwaukee Brewers, it was vintage Skubal on display as he mowed down their lineup with ease.
Skubal threw seven shutout innings, allowing only four hits. It was the second consecutive start that he didn’t issue a single walk, as he struck out nine in a 9-1 victory.
Yet to reach triple-digit pitches in an outing this season, the Tigers are smart to slow-play him as much as possible, since they have bigger aspirations than winning games in April; they want to be there at the end competing during the playoffs in October.
With Skubal anchoring the staff, that is certainly an attainable goal, especially when he is performing as well as he is.
Earlier in his career, there weren’t many people who foresaw this level of production coming from the talented lefty. There were bigger prospects in camp with Detroit, but there is one player who knew Skubal would emerge from the group.
Eric Haase, now a catcher for the Brewers, was with the Tigers from 2020 to 2023. During the COVID-19-impacted 2020 campaign, he was catching Skubal at one of the alternate training sites and was immediately impressed.
“I don’t want to say I called it,” Haase said via Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic (subscription required). “But in 2020 … it was (Casey) Mize and (Alex) Faedo and (Matt) Manning and all those guys. Skubal was not really talked about. I was like, ‘I don’t know what we’re talking about here, but that’s David Price.’ I just kept saying that.”
That is some incredibly high praise from Haase, as Price was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball at his peak.
He won the Cy Young Award in 2012 with the Tampa Bay Rays and was a five-time All-Star in his career. During his brief stay in Detroit, he was dominant in a similar fashion to how Skubal is now.
Haase may have been the first to see it coming, but now everyone knows Skubal is a bona fide star.
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Kenneth Teape is an alumnus of SUNY Old Westbury and graduated in 2013 with an Honors Degree in Media Communications with a focus on print journalism. During his time at Old Westbury, he worked for the school newspaper and several online publications, such as Knicks Now, the official website of the New York Knicks, and a self-made website with fellow students, Gotham City Sports News. Kenneth has also been a site expert at Empire Writes Back, Musket Fire, and Lake Show Life within the FanSided Network. He was a contributor to HoopsHabit, with work featured on Bleacher Report and Yardbarker. In addition to his work here, he is a reporter for both NBA Analysis Network and NFL Analysis Network, as well as a writer and editor for Packers Coverage. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @teapester725, or reach him via email at teapester725@gmail.com.