St. Louis Cardinals should pursue Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal

With Steven Matz back on the Injured List, it’s once again apparent the St. Louis Cardinals need starting pitching help, and a new young hurler just came on the market.

Based on a report by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, “just about everyone is available” from the Detroit Tigers roster.  This includes promising young starting pitcher Tarik Skubal, who could help a Cardinals staff decimated by injury.

With Matz, Dakota Hudson, and Jack Flaherty all on the Injured List and Jordan Hicks and Matthew Liberatore not getting the job done with their rotation opportunities, St. Louis is getting desperate for mound assistance.

The trade market has lots of starters on offer.  There are two-month rentals like the Angels’ Noah Syndergaard or Pirates’ Jose Quintana.  Pitchers controllable through next year, such as the Reds’ Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle, or the A’s Frankie Montas, are additional desirable options. The Marlins’ Pablo Lopez doesn’t reach free agency until after the 2024 season and has been very good, when healthy.

But what about a pitcher who has four additional seasons of control beyond this one, who scuffled to a 5.63 ERA in his 2020 MLB debut comprising 32 innings, sliced more than a run off his 2021 ERA (4.34) over 149-1/3 IP, and has posted a 3.67 ERA in 112-2/3 IP this season?  That’s a very quick summary of Tigers southpaw starter Skubal.

A young, cost-controlled lefty pitcher who is improving year by year?  What’s not to like?  While there certainly are a wide variety of choices available to the Cardinals, Skubal provides an intriguing mix of now-and-later performance and could hold down a rotation spot in St. Louis for the next half decade.

Of course, the question is, what would he cost?  With the fewest runs scored at 324 through 100 games – yes, that’s a pathetic 3.24 per game – Detroit desperately needs hitters.  And guess who has a plethora of young, cost-controlled hitters available at the major league and minor league levels?  The Cardinals, of course.

Brendan Donovan, Juan Yepez, and Alec Burleson all could appeal to the Tigers.  The first two have had solid showings this year in their debut major league seasons, while Burleson is tearing up Triple-A.  Or, if Detroit wants to go really young, there’s Won-Bin Cho, not even 19 years old and just starting his professional career.

The point is, finding the right deal for Skubal centered around fresh-faced hitting is eminently achievable.  Is he the perfect pitcher for the Cardinals?  Maybe, maybe not, but he’s certainly someone St. Louis should seriously consider taking a shot at.