Daikin Field (Houston) – Tarik Skubal thought he knew what to expect. After all, just last year, the two-time Cy Young Award started the All-Star Game and pitched in three playoff games. Yet nothing could prepare him for the emotions of representing his country at the World Baseball Classic.
In the first inning Saturday, he couldn’t feel his legs.
“I haven’t felt that since, like, ‘24, just that feeling of not being able to feel,” Skubal said Monday in front of Team USA’s dugout. “So, that was awesome. I loved it. And I want to experience it again, and I plan on experiencing it again with this club.”
It just won’t be in the 2026 WBC.
The joy of playing for Team USA caused the Tigers ace to consider making another start for the U.S., but Saturday’s pool-play game against Great Britain will mark his lone appearance of the tournament. Skubal confirmed he is sticking with his original plan to only make one start and will be returning to Lakeland, Fla., to rejoin his Detroit teammates sometime after Team USA plays Mexico in Monday’s pool-play game.
“My spring training start days were scripted out in January with the original plan being starting and then being done,” Skubal said. “Obviously, when I got here, my emotions kind of changed a little bit, my thought process changed a little bit. Tried to make it work, but just couldn’t. I hate it, but it’s all right. I’ll be the first to sign up for the ‘28 Olympics or whenever the next WBC is, I’ll be the first to sign up for that one, too.”
Skubal is not at peace with his choice.
He said he hasn’t slept much the last few days trying to find ways to make the scheduling work where he could pitch for Team USA in a potential finals game on March 17 without impacting the preparation for his start in the Tigers’ March 26 opener as he embarks on a contract year.
Ultimately, though, he couldn’t.
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“A lot of that risk and injury stuff is kind of where I drew the line,” Skubal said. “There’s a lot of risk associated with that, and then you put in the adrenaline and the heightened stuff, there’s just a big jump in workload, and that’s kind of what you want to stay away from in spring as you’re building up. Historically, if you look at data, almost all pitcher injuries are in spring or right after All-Star break because there’s time off and then you have a jump and spike in workload. Just being smart. I know what the season obviously means, too. Just kind of the whole thing played into it.”
If the WBC were a year earlier or later, Skubal acknowledged, his decision would probably have been different. Skubal will be paid $32 million in 2026 — a record for an arbitration-eligible player — after winning his historic hearing over the Tigers this winter. A bigger payday awaits at season’s end, when he is set up to become one of the highest-paid pitchers in MLB history.
His teammates and coaches — both with the Tigers and Team USA — understand Skubal’s predicament and why he is choosing to leave, which he said “means the world” to him.
“I know what’s at stake for him,” said USA manager Mark DeRosa. “Given his ability to get to free agency and just generational wealth on the table and everything he’s got in front of him, a chance to win three Cy Youngs in a row, I was proud that he even showed for us.”
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Skubal threw 41 pitches for Team USA on Saturday. He allowed one run in three innings and struck out five of the 11 batters he faced. After getting through that start healthy, he consulted with a number of teammates and coaches with both the Tigers and Team USA as well as his agent, Scott Boras, before making his final decision.
“Tarik’s awesome,” said Alex Bregman, who was among the players who spoke with Skubal. “Awesome human being, awesome player, one of the best pitchers in the world. And we kind of all understand the situation that he’s in, and whatever decision he was going to make, we fully have his back.
“Like Mark said, we were thankful that he even showed up to pitch a single inning for us. We know where his heart is. We know how tough a decision it is to make.”
Skubal said the experience of pitching in the WBC blew his expectations out of the water. In a week’s time, he felt like he had already been playing with his U.S. teammates for months, which added to the difficulty of the choice.
He plans to rejoin his U.S. teammates in Miami if they make it through to the semifinals and finals.
But only to watch.
“I think the only way I’ll be at peace with it is in Miami celebrating after we win the whole f***ing thing,” Skubal said Monday afternoon before USA’s pool play game with Mexico. “That’ll give me some peace. But, yeah, I don’t know. It’s kind of a tough situation. It’s hard. It’s really hard. I’ve been trying to make it work. I promise I have. I love America. I love our country. I love everything that this tournament’s about. And like I said, I’ll be the first to sign up for the ‘28 Olympics if they want to have me and we figure out the timing of it. If this tournament can be at a little bit better time to give starting pitchers a chance to kind of go out there and be who I am, yeah, I would love to do that.”
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