Detroit Tigers president Scott Harris has a message for anyone claiming he mishandled the trade of ace Tarik Skubal.
Public sentiment on Saturday’s blockbuster Skubal trade leaned heavily toward the Los Angeles Dodgers getting the better end of the deal. Many felt that the Tigers got a meager package of prospects in return, with the Dodgers not even having to part with any of their top-4 prospects in a trade that netted them arguably the best pitcher in baseball.
Speaking to reporters following the trade deadline, Harris responded to the claims that the Tigers misplayed their hand.
“We came into this very well prepared,” Harris said. “We came into this with a firm idea of the type of deal that we wanted to ultimately land. And we had a deep understanding of what every organization had to offer. I think there is a unique dynamic with a player like Tarik Skubal.
“Markets at the deadline for the top players are just different than the rest of the market. So I understand the intuition that, ‘Hey you’re supposed to wait until the very last second on a deal and then pull a trigger at the very last second to maximize a return.’ That’s not how markets for the top players work.
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“I’m very confident that we absolutely maximized the return we could get for Tarik Skubal.”
The Tigers executive added that there was “no team” interested in Skubal that was “waiting to see” how another player’s trade market unfolded before getting back on a Skubal deal. To Harris, Skubal was the player holding up the rest of the league, and such a market made it easy to assess all the offers out there.
While Harris gave a speech worthy of being included in any “Moneyball” sequel in the works, it won’t stop fans from pointing out that supposedly less-valuable players such as Adley Rutschman netted a better prospect package than Skubal.
Some fans and media members have peddled a conspiracy theory that the rest of the league colluded to let the Dodgers get Skubal relatively unopposed. Whether Harris believes that too behind closed doors is anybody’s guess.
