ATLANTA — The baseball world already knows plenty about Tarik Skubal. It damn well better. He was the ace of a playoff team last season and won the American League Cy Young.
The Tigers did not make the ALCS last season, though, and Skubal has never previously started an All-Star Game, so we can call Tuesday’s start his true coronation as The Man. It’s likely that a good number more people have heard of the NL starter, Paul Skenes, than Skubal. But Skubal is the top pitcher in the sport. As the starter in the 2025 All-Star Game, he’s getting his due and will be on display in the bottom of the first inning.
“Really excited to go at it with these guys [Tuesday] night. And obviously, to be able to give the ball to Tarik Skubal, one of the game’s true aces coming off a Cy Young season last year and continuing that dominance in the first half of the season, 10-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio,” said AL manager Aaron Boone. “What is it, 152 strikeouts now, 16 walks? Two things really hard to wrap your head around.
“I think just speaks to his not only ability to command the baseball, but to do it in a dominant fashion.”
It’s remarkable to, as Boone said, wrap your head around the kind of numbers Skubal is putting up. He won the Cy Young in 2024, but he’s even better this time around.
Right now, he’s 10-3 with a 2.23 ERA, 0.83 WHIP and Boone shorted him a strikeout: 153 strikeouts against 16 walks in 121 innings. His rate stats are better than last season and his counting stats are on pace to be better than ’24 as well. He posted 6.4 WAR last season but is already at 4.6 this time. He has the lowest walk rate in the majors along with the highest strikeout rate, which is just an obscene combination.
He has his teammates in awe and they were eager to share how badly they fared against him in spring training.
“Every time he pitches, he gets to the field early and works out,” Javier Báez said. “Even on his off days, he’s working. He’s always working. He prepares every day.
“I faced him in spring training and I was looking for one pitch … and when that pitch came, I couldn’t hit it!” Báez said with a laugh. “He’s on every pitch, he knows what hitters are looking for, he’s really good.”
Unsurprisingly, he drew rave reviews from teammates:
- “It’s so much fun,” Tigers All-Star infielder Zach McKinstry said when I asked what it’s like to play behind Skubal. “…He brings the energy every night. Thankfully he’s on our side. “I faced him in spring training and he threw me like five changeups in a row and I didn’t touch them. Every single one. It doesn’t make sense what he does.”
- “It was like one of the first at-bats of the spring for me, after the offseason I’m coming back and facing Skubal and I’m like ‘what are we doing?’ I stood zero chance,” Detroit All-Star outfielder Riley Greene said.
- “It’s impressive,” said fellow starting pitcher Casey Mize. “He pounds the strike zone, he works quickly, he attacks guys, he’s just dominant. He kind of fits the trademark of what you want a pitcher to look like. Hard stuff, not afraid to challenge hitters in the strike zone no matter how good they are. Gives us length. Strikes all the guys out.”
Mize is astute here in how you’d build a pitcher. If you created the perfect pitcher in a lab, it might well just be Skubal. He’s a hulking 6-foot-3, 240 pounds. He’s got a big leg kick and an aesthetically-pleasing windup and release. His arm slot is tough on lefties. He has swing-and-miss stuff but doesn’t walk anyone. Everything is just off-the-charts ridiculous.
Ask some of his AL Central foes.
“I would say it’s fun,” Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. said of having to face Skubal. “Just because of my competitive nature. He’s great, so it’s one of those things where you’re getting into the box and it’s a grind. It’s always fun to try and get in there and battle him. Just get ready for the fastball because it’s coming 100,” Witt said of his approach.
“It’s definitely not an easy one,” added Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan. “He throws 100, he puts it where he wants to, the changeup looks like the fastball, it’s definitely not a fun at-bat.”
The reinvention of Tarik Skubal: How Tigers ace mixed up his arsenal and became one of MLB’s best pitchers
R.J. Anderson
In true superstar fashion, though, Skubal didn’t want to take personal credit and instead pointed out how great his teammates are.
“I don’t want to take credit for what our team’s been able to do,” Skubal said. “We’ve got a great roster. Obviously, we’re pretty well represented at this game. It speaks to a lot of guys in the room. I just play my role, which is pitch. It’s an honor to be here and it’s an honor to have the trust of the guys in the clubhouse that every time I go out, they think we’ll win. That’s probably the coolest thing about this.”
He plays his role as well as anyone in baseball. He is a super-duper star and the best pitcher on the planet, whether he’s prepared to admit as much publicly or not. Seeing him take the mound to start the All-Star Game is just the culmination of his superstardom.
This news was originally published on this post .
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