The 100th Centennial New York Baseball Writers Dinner saw the Tigers’ ace collect his hardware.
Detroit Tigers ’ ace Tarik Skubal has been the 2024 AL Cy Young award winner for months. On Saturday night in New York, he finally got to collect it. The Baseball Writers Association of America presented the award at the 100th Centennial New York Baseball Writers’ dinner. As you might expect, the southpaw looked less comfortable giving an acceptance speech in a tuxedo that he does on the mound with 40,000 opposing fans screaming at him, but he he did a nice job. Lately he’s been getting plenty of practice in media relations.
Skubal sounded all the right notes, thanking ownership, the front office, and in particular his coaches and teammates. He rightly singled out special attention for his wife, Jessica, and their young son. He also pointedly thanked his catcher, Jake Rogers, for both for his role behind the plate and for a close relationship that allows Rogers to push the right buttons for him when the lefty briefly gets off track. Overall, nice speech, Skoobs.
Beyond the award, Skubal has been making the rounds this week in the media. He appeared on MLB Network, did promotional work for the league, and even visited young players at a few schools. A week ago, he was in town in Detroit, taking in the Lions unfortunate loss as well as a Red Wings game before heading to East Lansing to visit Tom Izzo and his Spartans. All in a week’s work for a player who became one of the more notable faces in major league baseball and in Detroit sports this season, and continues to show his appreciation for Michigan and his fellow pro athletes playing for Detroit teams.
Here’s Skubal’s acceptance speech. A.J. Hinch presented the award, and their segment begins at 1:46:00. Scott Harris, Jeff Greenberg, and Chris Fetter were also in attendance.
One topic that he hasn’t discussed, however, is an extension with the Tigers. Apart from an early offseason report that he and the Tigers were nowhere near a deal, this have gone very quiet on that front. For his part, Skubal would only say that he’s preparing for the season and isn’t going to comment on the possibility anymore at this time. The 28-year-old has two years remaining until free agency, and at the moment it looks like he’s bound to take his talents to the open market when that day comes.
Whatever happens, Tigers fans can take solace in knowing they’ve got the game’s best pitcher for a while longer. All the better is the fact that he’s really risen to the task of becoming a spokesperson both for his team, and for the game writ large. Idolizing athletes, or anyone else, is fraught with peril. In Skubal’s case, he continues to come off as a good guy who is as well liked by teammates and even competitors off the field as he is a competitive maniac on the mound. We’ve been fortunate to see him grow both as a pitcher and as a leader and a young man coming into his own.
You also know that a certain fastball to Lane Thomas has been driving him nuts for months, and that he’s going to do everything in his power to help get the Tigers back to the postseason. We continue to hope that ownership and the front office will do something significant to help him out.
For now, one more hearty congratulations to Tarik Skubal on winning the 2024 AL Cy Young award. It was a pleasure to witness that season come together for him. We’re excited to see what’s in store for 2025.