Tarik Skubal Impending Free Agency Discourse is Everything Wrong with Baseball

The Detroit Tigers have had an absolutely marvelous season to this point as they entered the All-Star break with the best record in baseball and became the first team to 60 wins shortly after.

As a historic franchise which in numerous categories is having its best regular season in decades, it's been a special year in the Motor City.

At the center of it all is, of course, their unanimous Cy Young ace, who looks more and more like a lock with each passing start to become the first repeat American League winner of the award in 25 years.

However, instead of celebrating what Tarik Skubal has been able to accomplish over the last two seasons and discussing whether or not he can lead Detroit to a championship, when the Tigers get on a national stage, the discourse seems to point in one very specific and very tired direction.

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This past Sunday, Detroit faced the Texas Rangers on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball broadcast with Skubal on the mound trying to stop the Tigers from losing a seventh consecutive game.

That was enough storyline alone, but ESPN's commentators, not to mention national writers could not seem to help themselves.

The conversation around Skubal seems to always land in the area of discussion talking about which big market conglomerate franchise he could wind up playing for when he hits free agency almost two years from now.

Never mind the fact that the 28-year-old adamantly goes out of his way to talk about how much he loves playing in Detroit, loves the city, the fanbase, his coaches, his teammates and so on.

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No, instead it simply must be asked whether he is going to be wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets or New York Yankees uniform when the 2027 season begins.

It's understandable why people want to ask and discuss this, and if there wasn't a hunger, then it wouldn't be asked by the biggest pundits in the media seemingly day after day after day.

But it also represents everything that is wrong with the game of baseball today and why some fanbases are becoming disillusioned with the disparity in market size, and in turn, how it impacts the rosters on the field.

Rather than talking about Tarik Skubal, the generational ace who is doing things on the mound that have not been seen in a long time, which of a select few uniforms he will eventually be donning dominates.

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It has just become a stale topic fans across the league are sick of both in this situation along with countless other young stars on smaller market clubs.

Major League Baseball and its national media cater to a very select group, and if you aren't in that group, it's essentially tough luck and thanks for developing the star behind the next big market balloon of a contract.

Make no mistake, Skubal is going to be worth every penny and more of the eventual huge deal he gets whether it comes from the Tigers or somebody else. And painfully, fans in Detroit must prepare themselves for the very conceivable reality that he certainly could be wearing another uniform two years from now.

With that being said though, a free agency sweepstakes that isn't even happening this offseason has no reason to be taking center stage every time a national audience gets the pleasure to see the left-hander pitch.

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Whether he stays or not, Skubal has some epic chapters left to write in his Tigers career, and this is a team capable of accomplishing some truly special things both this year and next.

That should be the focal point of discussion right now, not which big city the superstar will eventually flock to.

Baseball simply can't help itself though, and it's the biggest problem the game faces both today and in the future.

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