Tigers' Tarik Skubal Says It's 'Just Not Fair' to Criticize Him for Leaving Team USA, WBC

Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal responded to the critics who have called him out for leaving Team USA during the World Baseball Classic.

The two-time reigning Cy Young winner returned to the Tigers' spring training camp after making one start in the WBC.

"It's just not fair," Skubal told The Athletic's Jayson Stark in reference to the discourse. "But that's part of the business. It's part of the game. If they know me, though, and they know me on a personal level, and they know what my peers think of me, I don't think it's fair to say those things."

While he weighed his decision heavily, the southpaw added the inevitable outcry didn't factor into his choice:

"No, because a lot of those opinions and narratives are created by people that don't know me, you know? And I think if you ask anyone in the clubhouse, my peers … you ask any peers in that clubhouse, on Team USA, they've all been pretty vocally supportive of what I've got going on.

"And they also made a big impact on (this decision). I talked to them all personally. I took a lot of those guys aside, and (they) helped me make a decision. So the narrative that's created outside … I can't control it. I want to control what I can control. … And I can't control the narrative."

Skubal is going to be an even bigger scapegoat if the United States fails to make it out of pool play, which is a very real possibility after Tuesday's 8-6 loss to Italy.

A player leaving the national team, absent suffering an injury, midway through a major tournament doesn't make for great optics.

But this all says more about the shortcomings of staging the World Baseball Classic so close to the start of the MLB season.

The WBC final is March 17 in Miami, while the Tigers open the year March 26 on the road against the San Diego Padres. That's a longer period than Skubal typically goes between starts, but he'd almost be left having to wind down physically and then ramp back up for Opening Day.

"On paper, it doesn't look like anything different than a spring training start, but it really is," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said of Skubal's WBC appearance, per MLB.com's Jason Beck. "If you ask anybody that's pitching in these games, it's a lot different. What's happening now is what was the understanding from the beginning. There haven't been any changes."

With Skubal, there's the added layer of him playing for his next contract. If he once again pitches at an elite level in 2026, he could be headed toward a payday north of $300 million.

The 29-year-old is going to be very careful about managing his workload and balancing that with the Tigers' ambitions as a team.

Ultimately, everybody was on the same page when it came to Skubal's usage. Team USA manager Mark DeRosa understood he was likely to only make one start in the WBC.

If that was a dealbreaker, DeRosa had the chance to omit Skubal from the roster.