Tarik Skubal has finished promoting Team USA. The Post’s Adam Sheen isn’t a fan of the decision.
In the first episode of “Schein Time” A A new weekday YouTube show from Post SportsShane tore into the Tigers, calling his reasons for abandoning the World Baseball Classic after one start “garbage.”
“Listen, I have a problem with that,” Shane said. “I would never blame a professional player for not making Team USA or the Olympics… But for Skubal, it’s pretty clear, it’s all about the money, and that’s what bothered me… If you want to be there to help Team USA, you can be there… He’s in a contract year.”
“This is garbage,” Shane said. “…If you don’t want to be there, don’t come. Don’t do it halfway…It’s the lying that bothers me. I thought this was amateur hour.”
The 29-year-old Skubal, who has won each of the last two Cy Young Awards in the American League, pitched three solid innings during the USA’s 9-1 win Saturday over Great Britain, and later indicated he might stay with the team, which goes against his original plan for the WBC.
“When you get into those environments, when you have that team, it’s hard to get away from that,” Skubal said after the game. “I didn’t expect these kinds of feelings to go through my mind or for my thoughts to be different. I was so committed to getting started and getting back to camp.
“Things have changed, obviously, which is why I’m going to have some conversations to try to figure out a plan for me. But yeah, I don’t know either way.”
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Instead, Skubal returned to the Tigers’ spring training camp after just one outing in what he noted was a difficult decision.
“Spring training start days were set in January with the original plan to start and then finish it,” Skubal said. “And obviously when I got here my feelings changed a little bit, my thought process changed a little bit and I tried to make it work but I couldn’t. And I hate it, but it’s okay.”
Skubal is set to become a free agent after the 2026 season and is widely expected to receive a huge and possibly record payday.