Detroit Tigers Ace Wins Prestigious Publication’s Top Pitching Award

On the eve of the start of the American League Division Series, Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal won the first of what will likely be a wave of postseason awards as Baseball Digest named him its MLB Pitcher of the Year.

Baseball Digest is in its 83rd year as a publication. Last year’s pitcher of the year was New York Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole, who went on to win the American League Cy Young award.

The Tigers play game one of the ALDS on Saturday at Cleveland. Skubal is expected to start in Game 2 on Monday.

In his first postseason start against the Houston Astros in Game 1 of the AL Wild Card series, he threw six innings and earned the victory. He struck out six.

The 27-year-old just wrapped up the best season of his career and won the AL pitching triple crown, as he led the lead in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

He finished the season 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts. Atlanta’s Chris Sale did the same thing in the National League, as he went 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts.

During an interview with MLB Network in September, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said the quiet part out loud about his ace and his breakthrough season.

“Obviously he is the front runner for the Cy Young (award),” Hinch said. “I think he should win it.”

If Skubal is able to win the award, he would become the fifth Detroit pitcher to claim the award and the last to do so since Max Scherzer in 2013. Denny McLain won it twice.

He is also on the All-MLB Team ballot, another honor that is released after the postseason ends.

It’s hard to believe there were rumblings in July that the Tigers might trade him, given that they were well out of the playoff race at the time.

But, the Tigers hung onto him and put together an unprecedented run starting in mid-August — one Skubal anchored in the rotation — to bring home their first playoff berth in a decade.

“He is a frontline starter and when you have those, you want him to pitch every five or six days because he is somebody who can anchor a staff,” Hinch said.

The Tigers drafted him out of Seattle University in 2018. The ninth-round selection moved quickly through the system and made his Majors debut in 2020. This season isn’t just a potential award-winning season for him — it’s a breakthrough season. He hadn’t won more than eight games in a season before, which came in 2021.