Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today's games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today's edition is brought to you by David Adler.
Normally in this newsletter we keep the focus on tonight's games. But just this once, we want to look ahead to tomorrow.
Keep your eyes on the Tigers' game against the Orioles tomorrow afternoon (1:10 p.m. ET on MLB.TV). Because it could be the last game of the Tarik Skubal era in Detroit.
Skubal takes the mound at Comerica Park for what could be his final start as a Tiger -- his last start before Monday's 6 p.m. ET Trade Deadline. By the time his turn in the rotation comes up again, the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner could be wearing a new uniform for the first time in his career.
"Every single start that I have at home, even on the road, the support that the fans have given me is second to none, and I truly appreciate that," Skubal told reporters today. "But the questions, they follow you everywhere."
All eyes will be on Skubal, the No. 1 trade candidate on the market. He's been linked most strongly to the Brewers, Rays and Dodgers over the last few days, and Detroit's current three-game losing streak only makes it more likely that Skubal will be moved in a Deadline blockbuster. The Braves and Yankees are expected to start calling about Skubal now, too.
Entering play today, the Tigers are six games back in the AL Central and four games out of a Wild Card spot, with five teams in front of them. Their playoff odds are down to close to 25%.
Skubal, though, has been his old dominant self over the last month, as the ace left-hander gets further removed from the elbow procedure that kept him out from the end of April until mid-June. Over his last five starts, Skubal is 4-1 with a 1.48 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 30 1/3 innings.
He's also about to reach the 1,000-strikeout milestone -- Skubal is sitting on 999 career K's entering tomorrow's start. Even as the trade rumors swirl, he expects to make that start.
"I'm pitching tomorrow," Skubal said. "I've got something cool that I want to accomplish at home, so that won’t change."
Skubal is the biggest difference-maker available at the Trade Deadline, and after he starts tomorrow, there will be only five days left for the Tigers to make a decision. If that decision is to trade him, Skubal could single-handedly swing a playoff race for the team that lands him.
The Dodgers' role in the Skubal sweepstakes is the most interesting question as of today. There are differing opinions about whether the World Series champs will pursue a trade for Skubal.
Some reports suggest that a Skubal-to-L.A. blockbuster is unlikely, since the Dodgers expect to have Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow back in their rotation soon and would not need another top starter. But others still believe the Dodgers will jump in if the Tigers do indeed put Skubal on the trade block.
We'll just watch Skubal on the mound tomorrow, and wait.
Keep up with the latest Skubal trade rumors here >>
|
STAR SIGNING ON VERGE OF TURNAROUND? |
With the Dodgers' embarrassment of riches, sometimes you forget that Kyle Tucker, their marquee $240 million free-agent signing, hasn't even kicked things into gear yet.
But is that turnaround coming? Mike Petriello investigates the reasons behind Tucker's struggles this season, and whether there are signs that better days are ahead.
Something Tucker himself said this past weekend at Citi Field -- when he homered in back-to-back games against the Mets -- might provide a little insight: "There’s some times where I see the ball coming in, put a swing on it, and I can visualize the ball coming off the bat and doing what I want with it, but it doesn’t really go that way."
In other words, Tucker feels like he's mis-hitting the baseball, even when he feels like his swing is in the right place.
The numbers actually back that up. Tucker's theory is pretty much exactly what's happening.
See, there's not one big, glaring thing that Tucker is doing wrong this season. He's just missing out on some of the best-quality contact that he's always made in the past.
Tucker is not barreling the ball quite as often as usual -- which basically means he's not hitting the ball hard and in the air like he usually does. Barrels are the type of batted ball that typically turn into extra-base hits and home runs.
If Tucker just had his typical amount of barreled baseballs, his offensive stats would look, more or less, like a normal Kyle Tucker season.
Instead, we've gotten a weird Kyle Tucker season. But since the Dodgers keep rolling, it hasn't really even mattered. And there's still plenty of time for the real, All-Star Tucker to come back.
|
YOUR TRADE DEADLINE QUESTIONS, ANSWERED |
MLB.com national reporter Mark Feinsand did a Reddit AMA yesterday to answer all your Trade Deadline questions. Here are some of the highlights …
Q: Are the Brewers really going to be aggressive? I’ve been hearing that but it doesn’t seem to fit with their overall strategy.
Feinsand: Everything I have heard backs up the idea of the Brewers being aggressive, and frankly, they should be. … An aggressive Deadline could put them in position to finally topple the Dodgers or whoever else gets in their way. President of baseball operations Matt Arnold has been working the phones and has checked in on the likes of Tarik Skubal and Mason Miller, but players like that need to be made available for him to act.
Q: How serious is the noise around CJ Abrams?
Feinsand: I think you used the perfect word: noise. I would be surprised if Abrams was moved, though I suppose anything can happen if a team decides to make a huge overpay for him. The Nationals are having a surprisingly good season and Abrams has been a major part of that turnaround. My guess is that he's still in Washington on Aug. 4.
Q: How likely is it that the Angels will trade controllable players?
Feinsand: That is a very good question. Owner Arte Moreno has never been much of a seller, but with interim GM John Mozeliak running baseball ops, it will be interesting to see if he can convince ownership that a rebuild is the best path and that moving players like Reid Detmers, Jose Soriano or Zach Neto is the best avenue to jump-starting such a rebuild. I honestly don't know how likely it is, but I'm sure those conversations are being had out in Anaheim.
See more here >>
|
Here's the news and notes from around the Majors.
• The Marlins finally snapped their franchise-record 12-game losing streak yesterday -- and they did it in dramatic fashion, with a three-run ninth-inning comeback against the Phillies and All-Star closer Jhoan Duran. Griffin Conine delivered the walk-off single and said afterwards: "I think beating a good team like that, coming from behind in the ninth, like that's a playoff-type game right there."
• Mets superstar Juan Soto, on the injured list with a strained left calf, says there's a "100 percent" chance he returns to play again this season. Interim manager Andy Green added that, even though the Mets are in last place and expected to rebuild at the Trade Deadline, "the fans that show up deserve to see the best that we have available, and he’s the best that anybody has available."
• In other Mets news, Francisco Lindor -- who's been hearing his name mentioned in the trade rumor mill -- had his best game of the year as New York drubbed the division-rival Braves, 14-3, at Citi Field. The star shortstop went 3-for-5 with two home runs, a triple and six RBIs, his first multi-homer game of 2026 and his season high in RBIs.
• Max Scherzer got a standing ovation as he returned to make his 100th career start at Nationals Park, which he called home from 2015-21, on his 42nd birthday. It was a short outing for the Blue Jays right-hander, who was coming back from the injured list, but Mad Max recorded four strikeouts to move within eight of Walter Johnson for 10th place all-time.
• There's plenty of drama in the AL West race, with the Rangers, Astros and Mariners all within a few games of each other. Yesterday, Texas extended its lead over Seattle with a power display led by Joc Pederson to finish off the two teams' head-to-head matchup. But the surging Astros managed to keep pace with a four-run ninth-inning comeback against the Angels.
• When is winning a challenge a bad thing? When it backfires like this. The Reds thought they had saved a run today when they successfully overturned a hit-by-pitch call on the Guardians' Kyle Manzardo with the bases loaded … only for Manzardo to launch a grand slam two pitches later. One run would've been better!
|
TRADE RUMORS: RED SOX SHORTSTOP TARGETS |
We're bringing you all the latest trade rumors up to Monday's Trade Deadline. In today's news, the Red Sox are looking for a shortstop upgrade.
Even after the Red Sox traded for Curtis Mead, they might not be done adding to their infield.
Boston is reportedly in the market for a shortstop, too, and has interest in the Angels' Zach Neto, the Nationals' CJ Abrams and the Astros' Jeremy Peña.
Those won't be the easiest players to land in a trade. Neto is 25 years old and has three-plus years of club control left, Abrams will likely require an even larger return thanks to his star-level production this season, and Peña's availability is complicated because Houston is in contention to win the AL West and might actually be buying at the Deadline. But the Sox are going to try.
Want more Trade Deadline content? Sam Dykstra breaks down the teams that have the strongest prospect pools to trade from >>
|
Put your baseball brain to the test with Daily Walkoff, where you can find 30 brand-new trivia puzzles every day, one for each team. Play Daily Walkoff >>
|
|
|
© 2026 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.
Please review our Privacy Policy.
You (geoffgould.gr8iphone@blogger.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com.
Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe or log in and manage your email subscriptions.
Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment