00:00John, you certainly piqued a lot of curiosity in Chicago yesterday talking about the Cubs and Tariq Skubal
00:06and the possibility of the Tigers because of the Scott Harris connection to the Cub organization.
00:12Nice link.
00:13And what that could mean if the Tigers are committed to trading Tariq Skubal.
00:18How committed are the Tigers to trading Tariq Skubal, and why do you put the Cubs at the top of
00:23the list?
00:25Yeah, I mean, at this point, the Tigers are, I think they're 12 games under, something like that.
00:33At this point, it looks likely that a trade of Skubal will happen.
00:38He's had two bullpen sessions, which are encouraging.
00:42I mean, I think they're reported to be excellent or something like that, but they're just bullpen sessions.
00:47So we'll see.
00:48He should be back sometime in June.
00:51The original guess was two months.
00:53He's going to do better than that.
00:54He had the nanoscope-type surgery, and, you know, if he shows that he's close to what he's been in
01:02the past,
01:03a two-time Cy Young winner, and they're playing anything like what they're playing right now,
01:10he is going to be traded.
01:12So, I mean, at this stage, you know, I would put it at 75% chance.
01:17The Tigers certainly have been thinking about it.
01:19They're not crazy.
01:20They understand the situation that they're in.
01:23They know it can change, too, because if you recall a couple years ago, they sold off, and then they
01:29rallied and made the playoffs.
01:31And last year, they had a huge lead on the Guardians and, like, I don't know, 10 or 15 games
01:37and ended up blowing it.
01:39So things obviously can change, but at this stage, I would say a trade looks very likely.
01:45And I do think the link is big.
01:48The one question I have with the Cubs is their top young players are opposition players who are the arms
01:54that they're going to trade.
01:55They're obviously not trading Horton.
01:57Their top young players are probably Shaw, Ballesteros, Alcantara.
02:02You know, they're opposition players.
02:04So I do think, though, the connection is big with Scott Harris being with the Cubs in the 2016 championship,
02:12and after that with Jed Hoyer.
02:14So I do think that, speculatively, their chances are as good as anyone's.
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