After a ton of clamoring from the fan base and the team just a couple fo games under .500, the Detroit Tigers are calling on a lot of their big guns. Isaac Paredes, Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal all got the call on Monday signaling a big wave of the next core of this team. Skubal, a lefty that soared into top 100s after a fantastic 2019, is one of the most exciting lefties to debut this year.
Read Isaac Paredes’ call up piece here.
The Rankings
Skubal ranked #4 on our Tigers Top 30 List and #53 on our Top 500 Fantasy List, the fourth highest LHP from the latter list.
Physical Description
Listed at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds — Skubal’s height and weight appear fairly accurate upon observation. The big left-hander possesses an athletic, sturdy workhorse frame with a strong, thick lower half. He has broad shoulders, long limbs and a high waist with average upper body and core strength. There’s minimal physical projection remaining.
Delivery & Mechanics
A former standout basketball player, Skubal’s actions are balanced, fluid and athletic. He fires the ball from a high 3/4 slot with a moderate to high effort delivery. His high leg kick and late exposure yield solid deception. Despite having some funky crossbody arm action, Skubal utilizes his height and high slot to work down hill generating nice downward plane. Skubal’s arm speed and long levers increase perceived velocity, but the arm action saps away some of those gains.
Pitch Mix
Fastball (60): Skubal’s heater grades plus, sitting 92-96 mph scraping as high as 98 mph, with some downhill plane. He adds and subtracts velocity exceptionally well. The lower velocity band yields a heavy two-seam sinker that he predominately pounds low in the zone. Skubal frequently lives in the upper half of the zone with his four-seamer. The power fastball has arm-side life, and some riding life when he climbs the ladder out of the zone. Early in ‘19 he’d frequently lose velocity around the 50-60 pitch mark; around midseason he started showing the ability to hold velo later into his outings. Overall a plus offering, Skubal leans heavily on his fastball creating some predictable sequencing and adding some reliever risk.
Slider (60): Pro instruction has yielded significant gains for Skubal’s mid-80s slider. In early ‘19 the offering was a firm short, horizontal cutter-esque offering. A modified grip and altered approach halfway through the season transformed the offering from a fringy wrinkle to a more traditional slider with plus potential. The sharp two-plane breaker has solid depth, occasional tilt and nasty darting action at its best. He’s comfortable utilizing the offering to both sides of the plate and he routinely pounds it inside as a back-foot chaser to right-handed batters. The offering misses bats, has put-away promise and legit plus potential moving forward.
Changeup (50): A respectable third pitch, Skubal’s change-up sits around 83-86 mph. The offering predominately plays below-average, but flashes solid-average. Its main deficiencies being lack of consistent feel and conviction. He maintains arm slot and tunnel, but he slows his arm-speed on occasion telegraphing the pitch, guiding it to the plate. As a result, command is also a bit of a bear. Over my live looks, the majority of those that were hung yielded well-barreled knocks. The offering’s movement varies, as the upper band of velo yields a pedestrian firm tumbler. At its best, Skubal’s change features desired velocity, steep tumbling action and solid fade, giving me reason to believe that it can develop into an average offering.
Curveball (45): Skubal’s curveball is a change of pace, fringy offering. Early last season the pitch was his go-to secondary offering; he significantly backed off, favoring the slider instead as the season progressed. His curveball sits 79-82 mph with big 1/7 shape. The inconsistent breaker has depth, but lacks consistent tight rotation and late break; often rolling in as a loopy cement mixer. It plays up a bit against same-sided batters where he flashed the ability to backdoor it or work it as a chaser on the outer third. Right-handers appeared to see it well, and his hangers yielded loud contact. Skubal’s curve sits below-average and flashes average on occasion when he’s locked in. Rarely utilized, I’ll hedge and hang a realistic future fringe-average grade on the offering.
Control and Command: Skubal is a control-over-command pitcher, meaning he pounds the zone with average to above-average stuff, but relies more on the stuff than its precise location to draw weak contact or whiffs. He has pitchability, as the southpaw changes speeds and moves the ball around the zone well to keep the opposition off balance and guessing. Skubal commands his fastball arm side a touch better than glove side. He has some feel for locating his slider but the feel for the curve and changeup is still touch and go. Overall Skubal projects average control with fringe-average command. Grade: Control 50 / Command 45
Prediction
The effort in his delivery, injury history and fastball heavy sequencing create a brief pause and add some reliever risk. Improved sequencing and the development of the change-up and or curveball are paramount for his ceiling to be reached. Regardless, borderline upper-90s heat from the left side, with a plus slider would most likely yield an impact high-leverage reliever — a solid and respectable floor. The repertoire is solid and deep enough in its current state to potentially produce a solid back of the rotation innings eater.
Eddy’s Fantasy Take: Take a flier in 12-team leagues and deeper. You’ve read how lethal his fastball and slider can be and the improvement in the change can be huge for Skubal. However the team has already said he isn’t fully stretched out, so even a 5-inning debut would be expecting too much. Expect 3-4 inning stints at first and then hope for more. I know, it dampens the enthusiasm. But he has the potential to be a strong ratio help in roto leagues.