Tarik Skubal trade value fears are all wrong after surprise Yankees victory

What happened to the "Old Tarik Skubal"? After watching his third straight below-his-own-high-standards start coming off of unprecedented elbow surgery and a rapid recovery, the answer seems to be ... nothing, really, if you watched the game instead of the box score. The Yankees deserve plenty of credit for what went down Wednesday, taking advantage of sequencing patterns and staying one step ahead of Skubal on a few occasions (starting their secret weapon, for instance).

But if you thought the finale in Detroit might tank his trade value, give the Yankees a leg up, or stoke fears about his viability, it really shouldn't have done any of the three.

Skubal was victimized by the longball thrice against the Yankees. Two of them came off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt, the first time anyone's homered twice in a game off Skubal since ... Goldschmidt in 2021. If getting yammed on by Goldy is disqualifying for a pitcher, then the entire league has to surrender arms at this point; he's having a comeback season for the ages. The other homer was an exemplary piece of hitting by Jasson Domínguez, who got put out to pasture by Skubal's changeup in his first and second at-bats, only to work a nine-pitch AB until he finally received a misplaced changeup in the zone and made him pay.

In between those homers — which, yes, we can't pretend they didn't exist — Skubal was in a groove, dotting 99-100 and dismissing the Yankees out of hand. Below the hood, the whiff rate was the stuff of kings, not indicative of rust.

Are Yankees still considering Tarik Skubal trade after Wednesday win?

Any team entertaining dealing for Skubal will still have to surrender a (rental) haul. The chances of him turning into a pumpkin certainly exist, but the indications that he'll implode aren't any stronger than they would be for any other pitcher in the world. Pitchers break. It remains a depressing possibility. But the Yankees didn't tee off on Frankie Montas and his cedar plank shoulder on Wednesday. They just put some good swings on a monster whose velo climbed and command sharpened as the night wore on.

The Yankees will probably be as "in" on Skubal as anyone, though the landscape remains the same. The Dodgers will be perceived to be at the front of the pack until they're not. No team acts with more aggression and desperation, despite their clear position as baseball's 1A. The Milwaukee Brewers, with an otherworldly rotation already, the ability to reload their farm annually, and a potential once-in-a-lifetime path past LA with Skubal/Misiorowski/Kyle Harrison, know the stakes. They won't have access to free agent talent like Skubal anytime soon. Flags fly forever, and they have none. If they want to outbid the Yankees, they can.

So yes, the Yankees will be interested. No, they didn't do themselves any favors in that arena on Wednesday. Skubal's value didn't clatter to the floor as he watched Domínguez's drive sail out to left. But ... still ... pretty awesome that happened, huh?

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