How the Tigers handled the Deadline scene

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

For most of the final week of July, the Tigers clubhouse was understandably on edge. Some of the players who formed the veteran core of a young clubhouse were going to leave; it was just a matter of when and where. But other younger players were getting mentioned in trade rumors, too, led by Tarik Skubal.

The uncertainty was wearing on the clubhouse, and more than a few players were looking forward to getting past the Trade Deadline and getting some certainty about who would be around for the stretch run.

“I feel like this team, we’re pretty close-knit guys. We all just want to be together and play together. Whenever you know who’s on your team and you’re throwing out your best guys, there’s a lot of confidence behind that,” said Tyler Holton after making his third start in seven days Monday, this time in place of Jack Flaherty.

That certainty came Tuesday, but it came with some chaos in a postgame clubhouse following a 5-0 loss to the Guardians. Detroit and Cleveland were the only teams to play a day game on Deadline day, and it produced an odd scene. When the clubhouse opened to reporters, Andrew Chafin was on his phone, figuring out his next step. The news of his trade to Texas crawled along the bottom of the screen on the clubhouse televisions, all tuned into MLB Network.

It wasn’t much different than other Major League clubhouses, except that it was postgame instead of pregame.

“I’m glad we had the day off [Wednesday], because the post-Deadline from our vantage point in the clubhouse is always tough,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “We had a number of guys walk out of the clubhouse that we cherish. The brotherhood, the teammate part of them, the people and the players, it’s always tough.”

Flaherty and Mark Canha didn’t know their fates yet, but they knew it was coming. Flaherty had been scratched from his start and spent two games in the dugout cheering on teammates and waiting for news, essentially stuck in limbo. Their deals came together shortly before the 6 p.m. ET deadline, a couple hours after the game had ended.

Skubal sat for a while, watching the televisions. He seemed to be safe, but until the Deadline passed, nothing was certain.

“Not close,” president of baseball operations Scott Harris said when asked about Skubal talks. “There are a lot of rumors that floated out there. There are a lot of unconfirmed reports that are just totally inaccurate. We never came close to trading Skubal.”

Now comes the aftermath. The Tigers still have good, young talent, led by Skubal. But the only other starter currently on the roster is Keider Montero, who pitched seven quality innings in Thursday’s 7-1 loss to the Royals. They’ll need reinforcements there, which will come from the current roster or the farm system until Casey Mize and Reese Olson can return. Their lineup is without Riley Greene until he returns from the injured list due to a right hamstring strain.

The toughest loss might be Chafin, who had filled a number of roles in the bullpen depending on the situation.

“We have a much different 'pen just with the transition to a couple different guys,” Hinch said. “If anything, I think the guys that are here on this team know that we’re going to search for the right combo and we’re going to play the guys that we feel are best suited to win as many games as we can. That goes for the pitching staff, the bullpen, the roles.”

That said, Hinch doesn’t want sympathy. The Tigers still want to compete, and this isn’t a complete teardown.

“It is time for our guys to use what they learned from guys like Mark Canha, Carson Kelly and Chaf and Jack,” Hinch said. “These guys did a lot for this young group, and the youngsters are growing up. I think our guys are well-prepared to win today’s game, and [they] continue to try to win series and build towards better times.”