SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 25: Tarik Skubal #29 of the Detroit Tigers sits in the dugout before their game against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park on August 25, 2025 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

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The New York Yankees have good reason to be optimistic about their starting rotation next year.

After a stellar debut in pinstripes this past season, Max Fried is set to return. And Carlos Rodon should be ready to contribute in late May after undergoing elbow surgery. Plus the team is expecting franchise ace Gerrit Cole to return from Tommy John surgery back to his old form.

But that shouldn’t preclude the Yankees from exploring the addition of another frontline arm. No club with championship aspirations can ever feel that it has enough pitching depth. So news that the Detroit Tigers might offer two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal up in a trade surely caught the attention of the Yankees’ front office as well as the team’s fans.

“Detroit Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris has told teams he expects Tarik Skubal to pitch for Detroit in 2026, but that hasn’t stopped him from listening on the two-time Cy Young Award winner,” Jim Bowden wrote for The Athletic. “The Yankees enter the 2026 season with two of their top starters — Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon — still working their way back from injuries. Their rotation is a strength but adding Skubal would keep the rotation elite while Cole and Rodón are out and would give them a year to make a case to Skubal as to why he should re-sign with them.”

Though the idea of adding Skubal to the rotation should pique the Yankees’ interest, it would take a significant package to secure him. Bowden suggested the Yankees would need to deal away top prospects Spencer Jones, Carlos Lagrande and Bryce Cunningham as well as promising young arm Will Warren for just a single year of Skubal under contract.

And the pitcher himself has dismissed the likelihood of leaving the Tigers anytime soon in a recent interaction with a Yankees fan.

“That’s not my hat,” Skubal said in a viral video posted on Instagram.

Skubal sent that message after he was asked by a fan for a signature on his Yankees hat. That emphatic response could be seen as an intentionally demonstrative show of loyalty to Skubal’s current team as rumors of a potential trade circulate.

“Get out of here,” Skubal added, as seen in the video.

Though Skubal took the opportunity to dismiss any affinity for the Yankees, one can’t blame the fan for coveting his autograph. The Tigers’ ace cruised to his second-straight Cy Young Award season after posting an American League leading 2.21 ERA in 31 total starts.

The Yankees and virtually every other contending team should be calling the Tigers if there’s any chance Skubal will be on the move. But in the meantime, the pitcher has made it clear where his loyalty lies.