Tarik Skubal’s time in Detroit might be coming to an end soon.

The left-handed ace is in the final year of his contract, and with the Tigers staring down a 27-39 record and a fourth-place spot in the AL Central.

His résumé speaks for itself. Skubal is a two-time Cy Young winner, two-time ERA leader, and Triple Crown pitcher in 2025. Last season, he led the American League with a 2.21 ERA and led all of baseball with a 0.891 WHIP, 1.5 walks per nine innings, and a 7.30 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

This season, Skubal started seven games to the tune of a 2.70 ERA, 0.946 WHIP, and 7.50 strikeout-to-walk ratio before he landed on the Injured List. A month ago, he underwent surgery for loose bodies in his left elbow. On Sunday, the 29-year-old participated in his first rehab start, tossing five scoreless frames with six strikeouts in High-A ball.

Such is the case with many small market teams, though, the Tigers are forced to confront an unfortunate reality: trade him soon, or face the ever-growing prospect of losing him for nothing. So while speculation of where Skubal could land come the trade deadline, ESPN published a piece yesterday that speculated where Detroit Tigers starter Tarik Skubal could end up.

Surprise, surprise, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the only team that made it into the “The one that gets it done” category, but what the folks in Pittsburgh might find interesting is the Pirates showing up in the “Now we’re getting somewhere” tab.

At the very least, it’s nice to be included on the other side of a trade like this. I mean, how many times have Pirates fans been subjected to articles of this very nature regarding their ace, Paul Skenes? But the idea was fascinating to me, and with an off day to write this, I decided to explore a Skubal trade to Pittsburgh.

In their article, ESPN had the Tigers sending Skubal to Pittsburgh in exchange for a package headlined by right-hander Jared Jones and supplemented by outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia and a Round A competitive balance pick.

Garcia, 23, was just optioned back to Triple-A Indianapolis and has yet to break through at the major league level. The Pirates acquired the righty batter from Boston this winter in a deal that included starter Johan Oviedo and lefty reliever Tyler Samaniego going to the Red Sox. With Garcia, it’s just too early to tell whether he can be a formidable major leaguer, but I think most fans would be alright parting with him.

The only sticking point for fans in Pittsburgh would be Jones. The 24-year-old starter still has multiple years left of control and isn’t a free agent until 2030. He’s also just coming back from an absence spanning all of 2025 and the first two months of 2026.

Through his career, Jones is a 4.19 ERA pitcher in the majors. It stands to reason that with more starts under his belt (especially working back in after the injury), his 2026 and career numbers will continue to improve. It’s easy to be a little bit hesitant moving on that early for a guy who is a rental.

And make no mistake, Skubal would be a rental. You wouldn’t see anybody rental as hard as he would rental. That man is going to get paid this winter, and that money isn’t coming from Pittsburgh.

Now I have to imagine that general manager Ben Cherington, if he wanted to go all in on a playoff run in Pittsburgh, would seriously consider that deal. I also have to imagine though that the Tigers get a better offer from somewhere else, forcing the Pirates to either get into a bidding war with a big-market team like Los Angeles or bail out of the idea. The Dodgers can afford to sell the farm for a rental; the Pirates cannot.

But for the sake of argument, let’s just say the deal goes through: Jones is off to Detroit along with futures, and for the next few months, Skubal is a Pittsburgh Pirate.

On the surface level, it gives the Pirates a lefty in their rotation, something they currently do not have. The only left-hander to start games for the Pirates this season is Mason Montgomery, who the team has deployed as an opener four times.

More importantly, it gives them the best rotation in baseball. Skubal to go along with Paul Skenes and Braxton Ashcraft as your top three is nightmare fuel for opposing batters. Imagine that in a playoff series.

And while bringing in Skubal is certainly a luxury addition for a team that already has their rotation stocked up, it would help alleviate some of the pressure the Pirate arms are feeling.

Mitch Keller, the veteran of the group, has struggled to a 4.81 ERA so far this season. There is obviously still time to turn it around, but he’s been noticeably off so far this year.

Bubba Chandler, despite the great outing Sunday in Atlanta, has a 4.91 season ERA with a 1.444 WHIP and 1.55 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He leads baseball with 40 walks.

Adding Skubal pushes Keller and Chandler one spot back in the hierarchy and, in theory, takes some of the pressure and attention off them. That could be particularly useful for Chandler, who at 23 is still adjusting to major league hitting.

If rumors are true that the Pirates want to limit Ashcraft’s innings later in the year, you take Chandler or Carmen Mlodzinski and have him piggyback off of an Ashcraft start.

Skubal, at full strength, shouldn’t need a ton of arms behind him. He went at least six innings in all but one start this season, and went at least six in roughly 75% of his starts in 2025.

Look, it’s a pie in the sky idea. You’d have to move some things around, it doesn’t help Pittsburgh’s main problem of depth batting, and the ace would only be in town for a matter of months before finding his next home.

But there’s no better “all in” move in baseball. And for a city and fan base like Pittsburgh, no one deserves an “all in” season more than them. If (and that is an enormous if) the price for a rental Skubal is something around the price mentioned in that ESPN piece, Cherington has questions to ask himself.

How much does he want to win? How much, if at all, do the pros of going all in on 2026 outweigh the risks of mortgaging longterm assets? And how much does he believe in this year’s Pirates team, the only one he’s ever given a serious chance to win?

But as for any serious chance of this happening? No. Just, no. But, it’s always fun to dream!