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The Detroit Tigers (23-38) are tied with the Los Angeles Angels and Colorado Rockies for the worst record in MLB, and superstar left-hander Tarik Skubal is a free agent after this season; we know the drill here.
With that in mind, which team makes the most sense to trade for the defending, back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner? Dontrelle Willis thinks the team is the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I would love to see them [the Brewers] get Skubal because he has the big game experience and he can go on the road and shut down the opposing team’s offense, whether it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Atlanta Braves or anybody else, especially from the left side,” FOX Sports’ MLB analyst said Monday. “This is a situation where, if you’re a Brewers’ fan, you want the next step, but you want them to take the next step. they’ve had a lot of heartbreak, especially in recent memory, in some difficult places.
“You go out and get it [Skubal]it can feel like a CC Sabathia move and you saw what it did.”
Skubal is nursing an elbow injury that has kept him off an MLB mound for the past month, with the consensus that the southpaw could return to the Tigers in early July. FOX Sports MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal recently reported that the Tigers are “trending” toward moving Skubal before the 2026 MLB trade deadline (August 3).
In the seven starts he’s made this season, Skubal has a 2.70 ERA, a 0.95 WHIP, 45 total strikeouts, a 156 ERA+ and 1.7 wins above replacement over 43 ⅓ innings. Skubal led AL starting pitchers in ERA and WAR in both 2024 and 2025, finished with a WHIP under one in three consecutive seasons (2023-25) and posted 234.5 strikeouts per year from 2024-25.
As for the potential trade fit, the Brewers have been on fire over the past month as they have won 18 of their last 23 games and are now 36-21, good for a five-and-a-half game lead in first place in the National League Central. Skubal would join a Milwaukee starting rotation already among the game’s best, as the Brewers’ starting staff is tied for first in MLB in opponent batting average (.208), third in ERA (3.13), tied for third in WHIP (1.11) and tied for seventh in strikeouts (319). Granted, they are just 26th in innings pitched (279.1).
In what is his first full season at the MLB level, Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski is the early favorite to win the NL Cy Young Award as the flamethrowing right-hander boasts a 1.65 ERA, an NL-best 0.79 WHIP and 108 strikeouts, a 249 ERA+ and three wins above replacement. Meanwhile, left-hander Kyle Harrison has a 1.57 ERA, a 1.03 WHIP, 61 strikeouts, a 263 ERA+ and 2.4 wins above replacement. Their success comes on the back of Milwaukee trading ace Freddy Peralta and sophomore right-hander Tobias Myers to the New York Mets this offseason.
As for Willis’ comparison, the Brewers made a blockbuster trade for Cleveland ace CC Sabathia in 2008 that helped them clinch a National League wild-card berth. Across his 17 regular season starts for the Brewers, the Hall of Fame left-hander pitched seven complete games and posted an overall 1.65 ERA.
The Brewers are coming off a 2025 campaign in which they won an MLB-best 97 games in the regular season, but were later swept by the Dodgers in the NLCS. While Milwaukee has reached the playoffs in seven of the last eight seasons, it has reached the NLCS just twice during that span (2018 and 2025). The Brewers, who have never won a World Series, have not reached the Fall Classic since 1982.
