Tarik Skubal trade buzz persists, despite a lot of people — including Skubal himself — pushing against the narrative that he’ll be moved this winter. New York Post‘s Jon Heyman’s most recent update on Skubal communicated that a trade isn’t likely.
Nonetheless, until the Tigers sign Skubal to an extension (also unlikely, it appears), virtually every fan base in Major League Baseball will be daydreaming about Skubal wearing their team’s uniform.
Boston Red Sox fans are salivating over a potential Skubal-Garrett Crochet pairing. The Athletic‘s Jim Bowden even recently cooked up a mock Skubal-Red Sox trade, which was mocked by some and lauded by others.
What does it all mean? Mostly, that it’s mid-November, and baseball fans and analysts are bored.
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And while most Red Sox fans are well-aware that the chances of Skubal coming to Boston are near-zero, they are still horrified by the prospect of Skubal landing elsewhere in the American League East, such as with (gasp) the New York Yankees.
MLB Network analyst (and former big leaguer) Cameron Maybin poured some gasoline onto those fears with a detailed post to X on Thursday that essentially urged the Yankees to trade for Skubal.
“The move that would take over the entire league is the Yankees going to get Skubal,” Maybin wrote. “Imagine pairing him with a healthy Sandy Alcantara in the Bronx along with Fried,Cole,Rodon. That is a playoff nightmare for every lineup in baseball. And I don’t want to hear anything about payroll. This is the Yankees. If you want to win you find a way to make it happen!”
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Hilariously, Maybin didn’t go into any trade details as to how exactly the Yankees would pull off trading for both Skubal and Sandy Alcántara in the same offseason, all white retaining Fried, Cole, and Rodón.
Skubal wants to stay in Detroit, and the Tigers have every reason in the world to make that happen. The Yankees have about as good a chance to land the two-time Cy Young winner as the Red Sox do. Everyone should calm down and realize he’s almost certainly not going anywhere this offseason.
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