Who should represent Detroit Tigers in MLB All-Star game?
The “Days of Roar” podcast debates which players from the Detroit Tigers should make an appearance in the 2025 MLB All-Star Game, set for July 15.
Much has been made of the doubleheader between the Detroit Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday, June 19, at Comerica Park, mostly centered on the fact that Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal and Pirates right-hander Paul Skenes will both pitch in the twinbill, but not against each other.
It’s a missed opportunity for a pitching matchup between two of the best in the game. But what do the players think about it?
“I don’t really care,” Tigers left fielder Riley Greene said.
“I don’t really think too much about it, honestly,” Pirates right-handed pitcher Mitch Keller said.
To the players, they care that their pitchers do well and that the guy on the opposing mound has a bad day. Whether it’s their best guy against the opposing team’s best guy doesn’t matter as much as whether they have the best chance for victory.
“Just go up there and do the same stuff that I would normally do,” Tigers second baseman Colt Keith said. “Good pitchers have bad games. Just be ready to take advantage of it.”
That said, it would have been a marquee matchup.
Skenes has 1.78 ERA this season. He’s allowed four earned runs in his last seven games and struck out 50 hitters over 47.1 innings. His record might be 4-6, but the Pirates score an average of 2.33 runs in his losses and were shut out in three of them.
Meanwhile, Skubal, the defending American League Cy Young Award winner, has a 1.99 ERA and 111 strikeouts in 14 starts, fourth in MLB. Combined with how potent this Detroit offense has been, it’s one reason why the Tigers have baseball’s best record.
Skubal (0.808) and Skenes (0.854) are also first and second in MLB, respectively, in WHIP.
But on a Thursday in June, with the playoffs months away, matchups like this are rare when the rotations happen to align. Both teams will prioritize what’s best for their players and their rotations.
Furthermore, Skubal requested to pitch the earlier game, which makes sense given he was scheduled to pitch Wednesday before storms rolled through metro Detroit. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said he respected Skubal’s preference and stuck to the rotation.
“I went to Tarik and asked them which game he wanted. He said the early one,” Hinch said. “At that point, we’re going to lock in Tarik for the game that he can prepare for. …
“I guess I could have gone to Tarik and said, ‘Hey, Skenes is pitching Game 2. You’re going to move to Game 2.’ And I imagine, while cool, he would have said, ‘I’m going to pitch Game 1.’”
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A spokesperson for the Pirates said starting Skenes in the second game was a managerial decision.
“They probably don’t want to face Skubal while they have Skenes on the mound because that’s their best chance to win,” Keith said matter-of-factly.
That doesn’t mean the players — and managers — wouldn’t want to watch a matchup like that.
“It’s two of the best pitchers going at each other, so yeah,” Greene said.
“It’d be a quick game,” Detroit right fielder Zach McKinstry joked. “It’d be cool to see. They’re both dominant pitchers. They’re two of the top 10 in the league right now.”
“From a baseball standpoint, of course,” Hinch said. “It’s cool when the matchup is as incredible as those two were to happen.”
But Hinch knows how this works.
“From the strategy standpoint, just doing it for the sake of doing it, I’m going to take care of my guy and let the baseball work itself out how it does,” Hinch said.
Maybe next time.
Tigers beat writer Evan Petzold contributed to this report.
Contact reporter Matthew Auchincloss mauchincloss@freepress.com
