After tremendous experience with Team USA, Skubal's next start will come with Tigers

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Tarik Skubal will make his next start on Saturday for the Tigers.

That was the plan all along when the Tigers and the back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner laid out his Spring Training schedule to fit in an appearance for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic and still be on turn for Opening Day on March 26. Try as they might, no matter how often they talked about ways to get him another WBC appearance, they kept coming back to the original plan.

“I talked to Tarik a few days in a row and listened to him,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Tuesday. “He asked me a few questions, and as he was processing this entire situation, I felt like my duty was to be a sounding board for him and kind of lay out what the original plan was and the impact if things change for whatever reason. I feel for him because he's tried to do everything for everybody, but it was hard to really see it working in the way that most people were assuming was a logical way for it to work. The timing became more and more of an issue.

“We're both supportive and happy that he's coming back, but [we] would have supported whatever needed to happen to make him feel like he got a full experience in what he was after. Those plans that were made in January, we talked through a ton, both then and now. He was in a really hard spot to try to please everybody in a world where criticism is easy. He should take no criticism because I think he did something incredible to be a part of it in the first place.”

Skubal’s next outing won’t actually be in Lakeland, but it’ll be just down the road in Dunedin, where the Tigers face the Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon. It’ll be on six days’ rest after his start for Team USA last Saturday against Great Britain. The extra days were built in for travel. Skubal headed back to Lakeland on Tuesday and will work out on Wednesday.

“On paper, it doesn't look like anything different than a Spring Training start,” Hinch said of Skubal’s WBC appearance, “but it really is. If you ask anybody that's pitching in these games, it's a lot different. What's happening now is what was the understanding from the beginning. There haven't been any changes.”

From there, Skubal will make one more Spring Training start before the Tigers break camp and Skubal prepares for Opening Day in San Diego. He can join Team USA between Spring Training starts to be with the team for the semifinals and finals in Miami, a few hours’ drive from Lakeland.

“I mean, this is a special time for players in a very difficult time in their buildup for the season,” Hinch said. “I love hearing [Skubal’s] passion and the intensity of the games, being in that clubhouse and being around that team. He earned the right to be in that room.

“Not all the conversation is about a decision point. It's just going through his game and his game plan, pitching with that peer group. That was really awesome to hear. As we got to walking through what the paths were that could be taken, it just became really hard to accomplish everything. And then he let me know what he decided.”