Sacramento, Calif. — The confluence of emotions was stark.
You noticed it Saturday night after the Tigers both clinched a road series win against the Athletics and bid farewell to their ace and leader, Tarik Skubal. The music in the clubhouse was thumping but the mood was subdued.
You noticed it Sunday morning as the players, realizing they were still just 2½ games out of a wild-card spot, tried to reconcile that with the reality of their best player now pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“The hardest thing for a team is to not overthink it and to underappreciate it,” manager AJ Hinch said. “Both can happen at the same time. We understand the impact, but the game is not over. He wasn’t going to pitch today. We have to be cold about it. We’ve got to move on.”
While allowing that it’s going to take a while to process all of this.
“We have a ton of respect for what Tarik brought every day,” Hinch said. “His preparation, his attitude, his desire to win, those impressions and that impact doesn’t leave with him when he gets on a plane to go to a different team. The day to day does. And we have to find a way to overcome that.”
The goodbyes Saturday night were deeply emotional. Especially for the core group that Skubal came up with.
“It was certainly emotional and you could see that on him,” said Casey Mize, who wonders if he will be the next foundational piece to be moved before Monday’s trade deadline. “For us as well and especially myself. He means a lot to me. This is tough for our group. But I am happy for him. I’m going to miss being his teammate.”
Mize said he knew the day would come when he and Skubal would end up on different teams. That didn’t soften the blow when the reality hit as they were together in the clubhouse during the Tigers’ 8-6 win Saturday.
Skubal and Mize were both drafted in 2018, Mize the first overall pick and Skubal in the ninth round. Both went through injury rehabs together. Both helped the team grow from a rebuilding project to a playoff contender.
“He’s always had a ton of confidence and desire to be great,” Mize said. “That’s where he and I share a lot of qualities. Whereas you could say that would be easier for me to strive for given the pedigree or whatever, but when guys are later-round draft picks, it’s easy for them to say I want to be a big-leaguer.
“That was never going to be good enough for Tarik. He always wanted to achieve more and he certainly has and that’s never going to stop for him.”
Skubal’s edge, his drive and his outsized personality helped drive the Tigers to where they got to the last two seasons.
“I am super thankful for what he’s been able to lead us into over the last couple years,” Mize said. “We don’t get anywhere near to what we’ve done without Tarik Skubal. And I hope our fanbase is appreciative of that even if it didn’t end the way everybody wanted it to. I’ve been super fortunate to be his teammate and be a part of and experience his rise to what he is.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what he does next. I am sure it will be great. He can’t really surprise me anymore.”
But, like everyone else, Mize is trying to stay grounded. He’s still wearing the Old English D. He’s penciled in to start Tuesday in Seattle. The mission is still the same. Get into the playoffs.
“We’ve played really good baseball the last couple of days and we traded our best player,” Mize said. “It says we’re two-and-a-half games back but obviously we have a lot of teams to pass. It’s a strange spot but I think a lot of teams feel that way. It will all get sorted, it’s just a weird place to be.
“But as players, what do you do? You just compete hard like you would any other day. That’s what I expect our guys to keep doing.”
As Hinch reminded everyone, the game doesn’t stop.
“We have a game and we have a responsibility to be ready to play and our guys will be,” he said. “You have to get back to your routine and get back to playing. We’ll process it all along the way and continue to inch forward. Ironically, we’re as close to the playoff race as we’ve been in recent memory. And yet we know exactly what losing a guy like Tarik Skubal means to our clubhouse and our team.
“It’s OK for it to impact you emotionally and it’s OK for you to be affected by it. Until the game starts. And then you have that responsibility as a big-leaguer to go out and compete.”
The Tigers won’t be able to fully replace what Skubal provided, certainly not on the field every fifth day. It remains to be seen what his absence does to the clubhouse.
“It definitely hurts. It’s a blow for sure,” Spencer Torkelson said. “But the special thing about this clubhouse is there is no, like, one ringleader. It’s leadership by committee and that’s going to help us in this situation.”
Hinch and Skubal hugged it out and had a long talk Saturday night.
“It’s emotional,” Hinch said. “This guy and I have gotten close. We’ve spent some incredible moments together, in games and off the field. He’s a meaningful person to me. And we do wish him well. We’ll all be paying attention to what he does. You don’t lose relationships over a trade. It just changes the trajectory of things in your day to day.
“We can root for him and still miss him. But we have to be big boys about it and go out and play these games and keep making this push.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: One hard goodbye: Tigers processing emotional loss of ace Tarik Skubal
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Chris McCosky, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
