How Tarik Skubal Shaped the Tigers’ Pitching Grade for 2025
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The Detroit Tigers have many things to address in the offseason if they want to avoid the same disappointment that the ballclub had this year AND last year. The team was eliminated in the American League Division Series proving that having the arguably best pitcher in baseball on the roster doesn't guarantee a trip to play for the league pennant.
Tarik Skubal has made headline after headline in the last two years and rightfully so. Skubal is electric and almost always felt like a guaranteed win for the club when he was starting, but ultimately their pitching staff was barely above average without him.
Pitching Staff Overall Grade: B-
As a team, the Tigers' pitching staff was not ultimately the reason for their demise, but it is hard to ignore the numbers that Skubal posted and how much they helped the team's average. Skubal finished the year with a 2.21 ERA and 241 strikeouts, both of which trailed only Garrett Crochet from the Boston Red Sox.
Skubal had the upper hand on Crochet however in walks, total hits, earned runs, and WAR. This complements Skubal's league-best 0.89 WHIP as he was one of six to post a number under 1.00 as arguably the best all-around pitcher in the majors this year. Now, as a team the Tigers sat right around average across the board.
Tigers | League Average | Ranking | |
|---|---|---|---|
ERA | 3.95 | 4.15 | 16th/17th |
Saves | 40 | 40 | 17th-19th |
Hits Allowed | 1309 | 1338 | 13th fewest |
Runs Scored | 691 | 720 | 16th |
Home Runs | 187 | 188 | 14th fewest |
Walks | 485 | 513 | 10th fewest |
Strikeouts | 1375 | 1355 | 14th |
Hit by Pitch | 59 | 64 | 12th |
Wild Pitches | 50 | 48 | 17th |
WHIP | 1.249 | 1.289 | 13th |
There were two other pitchers in the starting rotation who had more than 135 strikeouts this year, who actually were a good addition to Skubal, Casey Mize, and Jack Flaherty. Flaherty's demise was the earned runs (83) compared to Mize's 64. This brought Flaherty's ERA well over 4.50 and kept Mize's at 3.87 making him the No.2 guy for the Tigers.
The criticism for Mize is warranted from the summer months alone. In July and August, he had an ERA over 5.50, which was when the Tigers were in a full-blown meltdown. The entire Tigers team was struggling (besides Skubal, it seemed), but that doesn't excuse what happened.
The bullpen needed help this season and luckily some of those issues were addressed at the trade deadline. One of the best moves that management made this season was with the acquisition of Kyle Finnegan, who had a 1.50 ERA and held opponents' batting average to a .153.
Casey Mize was pretty good this season pic.twitter.com/bY1q29x4cd
— MLB Hall of Pretty Good (@hallofgoodpod) October 12, 2025
The Tigers could potentially be losing Skubal as he and management are very far off on contract negotiations. If that happens, then the pitching staff will take a monumental hit and fall well below average. For their sake, let's hope that doesn't happen.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.