The World Baseball Classic is set to kick off this week. Tarik Skubal made the surprising decision to play in the WBC with Team USA.
He will play in just one game in the WBC, but it is still a massive gamble financially, and Scott Boras, his agent, knows it, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
Boras was asked if he would be traveling to Houston to watch the player he represents participate in the games.
“No,” Boras told USA TODAY Sports, “I’ll be home on my couch watching with a knot in my stomach.”
Skubal is set to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and could be in line for a $400 million payday when he signs his next deal. He just won his arbitration case with the Detroit Tigers and will pitch this year under a one-year, $32 million deal. This is after winning two straight American League Cy Young Awards. An injury in the WBC would derail his chance to have a massive payday.
“I’d love to do the whole thing, it’s just a timing thing,” Skubal told reporters in Florida. “It kills me. I think I got the best of both worlds, getting a start, being in the room, learning from all those guys, but also by being healthy and pitching this season.”
The Tigers' ace originally was going to decline playing in the games, but decided to play after talking to several players on the team. One of those new teammates spoke about what it says that Skubal is pitching in the games.
“It says a lot about him as a competitor,” Chicago Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s sick that he wants do this on his walk year. His mound presence is how a lead singer would command a crowd or a really good speaker would command the room. It’s almost like everybody goes silent when he takes the mound.”
Skubal's likely lone start is set to be on March 7 against Great Britain. After the game, he will return to Spring Training with the Tigers in Lakeland, Florida.
Team USA opens up pool play on March 6 against Brazil, before facing Great Britain on Saturday.
