Tarik Skubal says he regrets skipping an elbow MRI last January

What happened

Tarik Skubal told The Athletic's Cody Stavenhagen that he felt something was wrong in his pitching elbow as far back as January, chose not to get an MRI at the time, and now wishes he had made a different call. The comments, published Wednesday per Yahoo Sports, represent the Detroit Tigers ace's most direct accounting yet of an elbow situation that has shadowed his season and, with free agency approaching, shows no sign of fading from the conversation.

Per Yahoo Sports, Skubal underwent a novel treatment for loose bodies in May and missed roughly six weeks as a result. He told Stavenhagen that had he gotten the MRI in January, he might have been able to address the issue at a more convenient time — before the season, rather than in the middle of one.

He also, per Yahoo Sports, used the moment to connect the elbow decision to the other notable event of his offseason: the club's choice to bring him to an arbitration hearing over his 2026 salary. The two threads — his health and his contract situation — are now publicly intertwined, and Skubal appears to have drawn that line himself.

Why it matters

The practical concern is straightforward: Skubal is the Tigers' best pitcher, he has already missed roughly six weeks this season because of the elbow, and the underlying issue — loose bodies, per Yahoo Sports — is the kind of thing that tends to invite follow-up questions rather than close them. Yahoo Sports noted that his elbow is expected to be the most discussed ligament in baseball between now and whenever he signs a contract this winter, and Thursday's comments did nothing to quiet that.

There is also a broader operational dimension. Skubal is scheduled to start Friday against the Kansas City Royals at Comerica Park. Yahoo Sports reported that he acknowledged he might be making his final home start there — a remark that lands differently depending on whether you read it as a comment about his health, his free agency, or both. He did not clarify which he meant, and Yahoo Sports does not resolve that ambiguity.

The arbitration hearing detail adds texture. Skubal's decision to publicly link the elbow situation to the club's decision to bring him to a hearing is the kind of thing that tends to matter when a player and a team are eventually sitting across a negotiating table. Whether it matters in that context is not something Yahoo Sports addresses, but it is not nothing.

Where the club stands

Detroit is 76-86 and fourth in the AL Central, 9 games back of the division leader. The club is eliminated from both the division race and the Wild Card race, sitting at rank 8 in the Wild Card standings and 8.0 relative to the cut line. The streak entering the weekend is L1.

That context puts Friday's start in a particular kind of light: a pitcher who has already missed roughly six weeks this season, pitching for a team with nothing left to play for in the standings, in what he himself acknowledged might be his last home start in a Tigers uniform. The remaining schedule is less about outcomes and more about health management, auditions, and whatever the club and the pitcher decide to do with the weeks between now and the end of the regular season.

The upcoming home series against Kansas City runs through Sunday. After Skubal on Friday, Casey Mize is the probable starter Saturday against Michael Wacha, and Framber Valdez is lined up Sunday against Luinder Avila. It is a rotation that reflects where this franchise is: a legitimate ace at the top, a mix of veterans and younger arms behind him, and a record that does not flatter any of it.

What we don't know yet

### Is Skubal's elbow actually okay right now?

The report does not say. Skubal acknowledged the history and the regret, but Yahoo Sports does not indicate whether he has since undergone an MRI, what any imaging might have shown, or what the medical picture looks like heading into Friday's start. The elbow health remains an ongoing concern per Yahoo Sports, and that is the honest summary of where things stand.

It is also not clear what Skubal meant when he said he might be making his final home start at Comerica Park. That could be a health statement, a free-agency statement, or simply an honest acknowledgment that nothing is certain. Yahoo Sports does not parse it further.

The arbitration hearing and its relationship to any future contract discussions is similarly unresolved. Skubal made the connection publicly; what either side does with that is not addressed in the material.

What to watch

Skubal is listed as the probable starter Friday against the Royals at Comerica Park. That is the next concrete data point. How he looks, how many pitches he throws, and whether there is any post-start update on the elbow will tell the next chapter of a story that Skubal himself reopened on Thursday.

Beyond Friday, the larger question is what the Tigers do with their ace over the final weeks of a season in which they are already eliminated. General roster mechanics allow for a pitcher to be managed carefully down the stretch, but Yahoo Sports does not indicate any specific plan.

The free-agency timeline is the backdrop to all of it. Skubal's elbow, his arbitration history with the club, and what he said Thursday are all going to be part of the conversation when the winter market opens. He made sure of that himself, per Yahoo Sports, by connecting the dots in public. The rest of the baseball world is now watching to see what the MRI he did not get in January might eventually reveal — and whether the one he perhaps should have gotten changes anything about where he pitches next.