Skubal becomes first Tiger to earn All-MLB nod

Tigers ace and American League Cy Young Award favorite Tarik Skubal is one of five starting pitchers on this year’s All-MLB First Team presented by MGM Rewards, which was unveiled on Thursday.

It’s a long-expected honor, but still noteworthy. Skubal is the first Tiger to make the All-MLB Team, which began in 2019.

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Skubal joins fellow AL All-Star Corbin Burnes, Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes, Atlanta’s Chris Sale and Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler in the All-MLB First Team rotation. Royals ace and fellow AL Cy Young finalist Seth Lugo is on the Second Team along with Cubs rookie Shota Imanaga, Houston’s Framber Valdez and San Diego’s Dylan Cease and Michael King.

All-MLB teams are determined partly by fan balloting conducted at MLB.com from the end of the regular season until Oct. 11, and partly by a panel of experts. When casting their ballots, voters are asked to consider only regular-season performance. The ballot included 26 starting pitchers, from which fans were asked to select five.

Skubal won the MLB Players Choice Award for AL Pitcher of the Year and was a unanimous selection for Tiger of the Year by members of the Detroit chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He’s in line to become the first Tiger to win the Cy Young Award since Max Scherzer in 2013.

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Skubal’s impact on the Tigers’ first winning season since 2016 and first postseason berth since 2014 cannot be overstated. While manager A.J. Hinch turned “pitching chaos” into a rallying cry, riding a series of bullpen games, openers and bulk relievers into a late-season charge, Skubal was the constant at the top of the rotation. For some stretches, he basically was the rotation, sometimes as its only traditional starter, other times paired with rookie Keider Montero.

While a hitter can impact a team just about every game, a starting pitcher has a mere fraction of a season to do that. The Tigers went 21-10 in Skubal’s starts, but just 65-66 over the rest of the season.

“He's been everything to us,” Hinch said during the AL Division Series. “And so when you hand him the ball, whether it's in [the postseason], the end of the year, the middle of the season, I know I'm going to get a guy who's prepared. I know I'm going to get somebody's best effort. I know I'm going to get an outburst of emotion at some point finishing an inning with a big out.”

Skubal was up to the task. His 18 wins were the most by a Tiger since Max Scherzer in 2014. His 2.39 ERA was the lowest by a qualified Detroit starter since Mark Fidrych (2.34) in his incredible rookie season in 1976. His 5.9 fWAR trails only Justin Verlander’s 2009 and 2010 seasons for highest by a Tiger in his age-27 season or younger since 1971. His 6.3 bWAR not only led MLB pitchers, it ranked seventh among all AL players.

"When you see special seasons like this, the hardest thing to do for all of us is to put it in proper context while you're watching it," Hinch said at the end of the regular season. "Think about Miguel Cabrera's Triple Crown, like how incredible that was. And now put it in perspective of his entire career, and we have a whole new perspective. We're going to look at Tarik's year much differently five years from now, 10 years from now, when that list is still short.”

Others who had an up-close view of it were in awe. With a fastball that reached triple digits nine times, capped by a 101.7 mph heater against the Brewers on June 9, plus a changeup that consistently flummoxed right-handed hitters and a slider that had a 34% whiff rate according to Statcast, Skubal’s arsenal was devastating.

"Let me tell you: It was fun," said catcher Jake Rogers, who caught all 31 of Skubal’s regular-season starts. "Guys would always ask how it was catching him, and I don't know if I could really answer other than he was kind of on cruise control all year. You get to a certain speed and you hit the button, and he's going all for it.”