For a rebuild to succeed, a major league franchises needs to draft well, to make intelligent signings, and to get lucky along the way. Whether the Detroit Tigers have drafted well remains to be seen, and whether they have made intelligent signings is definitely open to debate. One thing is for sure, however: they appear to have gotten lucky with the breakout of Tarik Skubal.
After one full season in the Tigers’ minor league system, Skubal has shot up prospect rankings across the internet. The 23-year-old hurler is Baseball Prospectus’s #76 prospect, FanGraph’s #53 prospect, MLB Pipeline’s #46 prospect, and Baseball America’s #34 prospect in all of baseball.