Detroit Tigers Ace was even better than expected

The Detroit Tigers star exceeded even the wildest expectations at the start of the season.

Before the MLB season began, ESPN’s baseball staff made at least one prediction for every team in the league. For the Tigers, David Schoenfield made a bold guess about how Tarik Skubal’s season would pan out.

“With Gerrit Cole missing the start of the season, the AL Cy Young race is wide open. How about Skubal?” Schoenfield continued: “Just doubling his stats from last season makes him a strong contender: 30 starts, 2.80 ERA, 200+ strikeouts, .199 batting average, 14 wins. He wins the award.”

The author was ultimately right about the Cy Young Award. Even though the award hasn’t been presented yet, Skubal is ready to take home the honor. He actually underestimated how good the southpaw would be en route to winning the award.

The 27-year-old set career highs in virtually every category as he exited the regular season as an AL Triple Crown winner.

Playing 31 games, he demonstrated his ability to last a season. He appeared in 31 games in 2021 but pitched over 40 fewer innings.

Given the regularity of pitcher injuries these days and the fact that the last two seasons of Skubal’s career were cut short due to injuries, there was at least some concern about his chances of becoming a workhorse pitcher.

However, the California native stayed strong this year and was able to play an important role in this outstanding postseason run.

Of these 31 starts, 18 were counted as wins. That’s two more than a three-way tie for second place at 16. Detroit won a total of 21 games in which their ace started.

Skubal probably could have taken home the Cy Young award if he had achieved that stellar 2.80 mark again, but he went one better this season with a 2.39 ERA. In fact, he only got above 2.80 once this season, and that was after the second game.

The second-lowest ERA among AL starters was Ronel, the Houston Astros’ breakout prospect, but he had a 2.80 mark.

Although he easily racked up more than 200 strikeouts, his per-inning numbers actually dropped this season. However, it was a good compromise as it regularly forced worse contacts.

Schoenfield deserves credit for urging him to continue playing at a high level because no one could have expected Skubal to be this good this season.