Willis Backs Brewers as Best Fit for Tigers Star Skubal at Trade Deadline
FOX Sports MLB analyst Dontrelle Willis has publicly endorsed the Milwaukee Brewers as the ideal destination for Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal, the reigning back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner, ahead of the August 3 trade deadline. Detroit sits at 23-38, tied for the worst record in Major League Baseball alongside the Los Angeles Angels and the Colorado Rockies, while Skubal is set to reach free agency at season's end - a combination that has accelerated trade speculation around the ace. FOX Sports MLB insider Ken Rosenthal has reported that a Skubal deal is "trending" toward happening before the deadline.
"I would love to see them get Skubal because he has the big-game experience, and he can go on the road and shut the opposing team's offense down, whether it's the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Atlanta Braves or anybody else, especially coming from the left side," Willis said on Monday. "This is a situation where, if you're a Brewers fan, you want them to take the next step because they've been to the postseason, but they've had a lot of heartbreak, especially in recent memory, in some tough spots. You go out and get that, it can feel like a CC Sabathia move, and you saw what that did." Willis' reference points to Milwaukee's midseason acquisition of the Hall of Fame left-hander in 2008, when Sabathia posted a 1.65 ERA across 17 regular-season starts and helped the Brewers secure a National League wild-card berth - the franchise's first postseason appearance in 26 years.
Skubal is currently sidelined with an elbow injury and has not pitched in an MLB game for approximately one month, with a return to the Tigers' rotation expected in early July. In seven starts this season before the injury, he carries a 2.70 ERA, a 0.95 WHIP, 45 strikeouts, a 156 ERA+ and 1.7 wins above replacement across 43⅓ innings. He led American League starting pitchers in both ERA and WAR in each of the past two seasons, finished below a 1.00 WHIP in three consecutive seasons from 2023 through 2025, and averaged 234.5 strikeouts per year over the 2024 and 2025 campaigns. Milwaukee, meanwhile, has won 18 of its last 23 games and stands at 36-21, leading the National League Central by five and a half games. The Brewers' starting rotation ranks tied for first in MLB in opponent batting average (.208), third in ERA (3.13) and tied for third in WHIP (1.11), though the staff ranks 26th in innings pitched (279.1) - a depth concern that a healthy Skubal would directly address. Right-hander Jacob Misiorowski, in his first full MLB season, leads the NL with a 0.79 WHIP and carries a 1.65 ERA with 108 strikeouts and a 249 ERA+, while left-hander Kyle Harrison has posted a 1.57 ERA, a 1.03 WHIP and 61 strikeouts.
The broader stakes for Milwaukee are clear. The Brewers have reached the postseason in seven of the last eight seasons but have advanced to the NLCS only twice - in 2018 and in 2025, when they were swept by the Dodgers after winning an MLB-best 97 regular-season games. The franchise has never won a World Series and has not appeared in the Fall Classic since 1982. Adding a proven postseason starter of Skubal's caliber would represent the most significant in-season roster move Milwaukee has made since the Sabathia deal, with the trade deadline now less than two months away.
