Tigers backed out of a Skubal trade with Milwaukee, per report

The Milwaukee Brewers are now your new World Series champions. The retrospectives are already here, as Andy McCullough of The Athletic has an article out today tracing their path to the franchise's first World Series title. One note is particularly interesting for Tigers fans. According to this report, the Brewers made a very competitive offer for Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline, and the Tigers had accepted it in principle. The Brewers front office thought they might have a deal done, only to watch as Zyhir Hope was pulled from his Double-A game and a deal between the Tigers and Dodgers was announced instead.

Well, kudos to the Brewers, who clearly didn't need much help. The reported deal was for two top 100 position players in infielder Luis Pena and utility player Jett Williams, along with outfielder Josh Adamczewski. The Tigers wanted pitching, but the Brewers were unwilling to part with rookie left-hander Logan Henderson in a deal. So the offer was the best offer they were going to make when Scott Harris called to ask for their best package before moving to the Dodgers to get their final offer. Not long after, they noted the Hope news, and Harris called back to tell them he was going with a different offer.

"I appreciated the s— out of that," Arnold said. "He was very transparent." The timing allowed Milwaukee to pivot and trade for St. Louis reliever JoJo Romero and starter Dustin May. But they did not add an ace.

Instead, the Tigers accepted the deal for Zyhir Hope, who is similarly ranked to Williams, along with injured right-hander River Ryan and High-A pitching prospect Brady Smith. Smith and Adamczewski are pretty comparable, thought the latter is graded a notch higher by some prospect sites.

I'm a big fan of Luis Pena, so this pains me a little bit, but at the same time, the Brewers had to know the Tigers were hunting for pitching with both Skubal and Casey Mize headed to free agency. Someday this may be a very interesting what if, as the Brewers package was the stronger offer on paper. It just didn't address the Tigers main need, which was pitching to fill the gap until their stock of A-ball level pitching prospects develops further. It really all comes down to Ryan, and whether he can finally put the injuries behind him and reach his potential as a frontline starter or potential ace reliever.

It's an interesting little study in approach as well. Harris asked for the final best offers and picked the best package from his perspective. It's tricky balancing need vs. overall value in all sports, but particularly in baseball. Maybe if Harris had acquired both Pena and Williams, he could turn entirely to pitching in free agency with a killer group of position prospects on their way to bolster what they already have in Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark, and others. But adding pitching in free agency has not been a front office strength. As far as potentially trading Williams or someone else for cost-controlled pitching later on, the truth is that acquiring arm talent with significant team control is really difficult. No one wants to give up inexpensive pitching, even for a good position player generally ranked in the middle of many top 100 lists. Certainly not during the offseason.

We'll see how it all shakes out in the long run, but it was interesting to get a bit more of a blow-by-blow of events than has been previously reported. Good to know Harris didn't just string anyone along and potentially leave the Brewers scrambling in the final minutes. That's the kind of thing that can really put other teams off from dealing with you again, but it's certainly not mandatory to inform a team that their trade isn't accepted. They sometimes don't find out until a deal is already complete.

The report is a bit of housekeeping from a Tigers fans perspective, but we'll take it as closure on the 2026 Skubal saga. Let the offseason begin.