Tarik Skubal’s changeup altered his career. Now it looks better than ever

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MILWAUKEE — Brewers catcher Eric Haase stood on the American Family Field dirt before Monday’s game and thought back to a young Tarik Skubal. It was 2020 when Haase caught Skubal at the Detroit Tigers’ alternate training site in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Skubal was just beginning to emerge as a pitching prospect to be reckoned with.

“I don’t want to say I called it,” Haase said. “But in 2020 … it was (Casey) Mize and (Alex) Faedo and (Matt) Manning and all those guys. Skubal was not really talked about. I was like, ‘I don’t know what we’re talking about here, but that’s David Price.’ I just kept saying that.”

The talent was always there. The power fastball. A nasty slider. But only in the past couple of seasons has Skubal honed the changeup that has taken him to another stratosphere, a go-to weapon that has him quite possibly pitching more ferociously than Price ever did.

Back when Haase was catching Skubal in 2020, the left-hander possessed only a basic changeup with below-average movement. By the next spring, Skubal went to Driveline Baseball and toyed with a splitter. He couldn’t command the pitch to save his life. Tigers coaches finally told him to ditch it. He played around with more grip changes. In 2022, Skubal’s changeup was a good pitch that generated good results. He used it only 15 percent of the time.

It was not until after Skubal’s flexor tendon surgery that season when he crafted the scythe he displays now. The Tigers wanted Skubal to harness the effects of seam-shifted wake, the way a baseball’s seams influence how the ball travels through the air. There were more tweaks. A cue for Skubal to “swipe” across the seams as the ball left his hand. Drills involving a black dot colored with marker on the ball. The point is to have the seams “clip” a wave of air and jolt the pitch toward even more movement. The changeup clicked. And Skubal has not looked back.

“It’s been a huge pitch for me,” Skubal said Monday night. “It’s kind of changed my career.”

Tarik Skubal, Nasty 90mph Changeup. 👌 pic.twitter.com/1dTVKS8KBN

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 15, 2025

The Skubal who threw Monday in the 9-1 win over the Brewers was not a fledgling prospect or a rising star. He pitched like a certified ace and perhaps the most imposing arm in baseball.

“He was really good, and he looked like he was in complete control,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said.

The fastball was righteous. The sinker helped vanquish lefties. The slider served its purpose. But especially early in Monday’s game, the changeup was what set Skubal apart. He threw the pitch 34 percent of the time, more than any of his other offerings. Batters whiffed on nine of their 15 swings. Only twice did the Brewers put Skubal’s changeup in play, and both were weakly hit balls.

“If he just threw all fastballs, he would be hard to time up,” Hinch said. “But the fact that he can disrupt timing with the changeup … kind of a three-dimensional pitcher who can do whatever he wants at any point. Ahead in the count, behind in the count, you want to be super aggressive; he can create movement and soft contact. He gets a lot of miss. It’s an exceptional pitch for his arsenal because it rounds it out to being a dominant-type arsenal.”

Only a few days ago in Minnesota, Skubal pulled out his phone and glanced at his pitch data from three starts this season. He had no idea he has been throwing his changeup harder than ever: up to 87.8 mph compared to 86.3 mph last season. With more velocity has come even more horizontal movement. Skubal aspires to throw his changeup with under 5 inches of vertical break and at least 12 inches of armside run.

Entering Monday’s start, the pitch was averaging 16.4 inches of horizontal break, up even from the average of 14.9 inches that helped him devastate hitters throughout last season’s Cy Young Award campaign.

“It looks like he throws it with the same intent as his fastball,” Tigers outfielder Kerry Carpenter said. “Those are always pretty tough when pitchers really sell it. … I’ve seen it before, and yeah, I struck out on it in live at-bats. So I can understand why people don’t like it.”

Skubal’s changeup was on from the start against the Brewers. Jackson Chourio flailed over two of them in his first at-bat. Sal Frelick and Vinny Capra punched out on changeups that reached 91 mph.

By the sixth inning, Skubal momentarily lost the feel for his signature selection, throwing six changeups for balls.

“That’s why I shook a few later in the game,” Skubal said. “It wasn’t because it was the wrong pitch. It was because I didn’t think I could throw it for a strike.”

By the seventh, though, Skubal was twirling a changeup past Joey Ortiz, running 19 inches away from the hitter’s bat, one of his best changeups of the night.

Skubal staged one of his most forceful outings yet. He was facing former Tigers starter Tyler Alexander on the other side, and a few days ago, Skubal texted his old teammate and said, “What a treat.”

Alexander, a crafty pitcher who Monday topped out at 90.3 mph, jokingly responded, “Two power lefties going at it.”

The Tigers offense jumped on Alexander early, scoring two in the first and second. As their hitters dashed around the bases, Skubal stayed warm by throwing weighted balls in a small room near the clubhouse.

“It’s chaos in that room,” Skubal said. “When you throw that ball, it flies everywhere. You just try not to hit yourself.”

Pitching with a comfortable lead, Skubal held the Brewers hitless through four until Rhys Hoskins singled to start the fifth. Skubal surrendered only four hits all night.

Facing a bases-loaded jam in the sixth, Skubal’s confidence never wavered. He bullied a 99.6 mph fastball past Hoskins to escape, and he let out one of his patented Skubal roars.

“It’s kind of what we expect out of Tarik when it comes to the emotion,” Hinch said, “because everything does matter to him.”

Skubal’s seven scoreless innings served as a potent reminder of how well-rounded and dominant he can be at his best.

This game was also a testament to how far he has come.

(Photo: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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