Ace left-hander Tarik Skubal has made it clear as the Detroit Tigers continue to drop games and fall further out of contention as the clock ticks down to the trade deadline: "Play better baseball or else."
Skubal, who will make his second start Friday since having an innovative surgical procedure on May 6 to remove bone fragments from his elbow, could be in line for a precedent-setting contract as he is set to enter free agency after this season.
And if the Tigers fall further out of contention, they have the option of trading the two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner.
"The reality is we need to play better baseball or else come the deadline, you give the front office an option to reassess where this team is," Skubal told The Detroit News earlier this week in a story published Thursday. "And if they don't think what we have is a World Series- or playoff-caliber team, then the whole team is going to look different. That's just the nature of the beast."
The Tigers (30-44) are 9½ games back of the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central and 6½ games out of the final AL wild-card spot entering Friday. The Tigers host the White Sox for a three-game series this weekend.
Major League Baseball's trade deadline is Aug. 3.
"The future for a lot of people in this room -- not just myself -- the outlook could look very much different in two months and it all comes to an abrupt end," Skubal told The Detroit News. "We still control our destiny a little bit. We still do.
"We play the team this weekend that's winning our division. It's another big series. You don't want to be playing playoff baseball in June, but it feels like we're playing playoff baseball. We don't have very much room for error and everyone understands that. Everyone understands there has to be a sense of urgency. There has to be. Not panic. But there has to be a sense of urgency to try to win every game we play."
The Tigers' other pending free agents after this season include Kenley Jansen, Casey Mize, Gleyber Torres and Jack Flaherty.
"I don't think about it a lot," Skubal said of the trade deadline. "I try not to let that consume me because I need to worry about what I'm doing today. ... But there's also the reality part to it. Everybody, the whole room, needs to focus on winning tonight's game, winning a series, winning the next series and just let it snowball."