Tarik Skubal & AJ Hinch on FT in NYC
Tarik Skubal & AJ Hinch on FT in NYCUpdate: 2025-02-02
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Description
AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal swings by FT after his acceptance speech at the BBWAA Awards event and then Tigers manager AJ Hinch talks with us about Skubal's unique dominant mentality.
Hosts: Ken Rosenthal, AJ Pierzynski, Erik Kratz, Scott Braun
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Transcript
00:00:00
The team that we had last year were the youngest team in the big leagues, the youngest post-season roster.
00:00:04
Probably in a long time, I'd love to see numbers on that.
00:00:06
So I'm excited to see the guys in Lakeland too.
00:00:08
That's gonna be a ton of fun.
00:00:09
I love your surprise at how heavy it is.
00:00:15
I want an award, guys.
00:00:16
I want to thank the Academy's Tarrick School.
00:00:18
Oh, darn it.
00:00:19
I want to thank the Academy.
00:00:20
Of course, it's a trophy.
00:00:22
I don't know, a tabby, though.
00:00:23
It's got to be plaque.
00:00:23
It's a trophy plaque.
00:00:24
It sure is.
00:00:25
Yeah, it's got to be plaque.
00:00:26
If this thing wasn't there, I'd say trophy, but...
00:00:28
Be honest, is it cooler than the MVP?
00:00:31
Like, look, cooler looking.
00:00:33
Probably not.
00:00:36
Come on.
00:00:36
Oh, it's got the fingers and everything.
00:00:38
I think it's sick, though.
00:00:40
Most valuable player of the whole league.
00:00:41
Okay, okay, but you're the most valuable player, yeah.
00:00:44
Yeah, but then most valuable player, I think, is like a little bit above it in my eyes.
00:00:48
Wait, you guys are asking two different questions.
00:00:50
They're saying the actual...
00:00:50
The trophy?
00:00:51
Trophy?
00:00:52
Yeah.
00:00:52
Of course.
00:00:53
Tarrick, watch the...
00:00:54
No, we're done, just actually.
00:00:55
Trophy, they hand you.
00:00:56
Yeah, this is a bad ass one.
00:00:57
Yeah, this one's sick, yeah, this one's sick.
00:00:59
Hey, I'll start this way.
00:01:00
So, we just did our post show, you know, or post awards wrap up, and we were talking about what stood out and can actually set Google speech really hit home.
00:01:09
So, I don't know if you want to tell them what you said.
00:01:11
Just how your path parallel the teams pass this year.
00:01:15
And people don't know all the time, Tarrick.
00:01:19
How much you guys certainly go through in individual cases.
00:01:23
Not all guys have the struggles you did, but I imagine tonight, given all that you went through, was that much more satisfying?
00:01:29
Haven't been through all that.
00:01:31
And knowing that we're down times.
00:01:33
Yeah, no, I mean, in my career, but also kind of the...
00:01:38
It's a little bit similar to my time with the Tigers too, you know.
00:01:41
Been a part of five teams that have sold at the deadline, and then obviously we go and do what we did last season was...
00:01:48
Was great, you know, it took a ton of pressure off me putting pressure on myself to go kind of chase down an award like this.
00:01:55
And just got me mentally back into, you know, trying to win games and trying to make the playoffs.
00:02:01
So, you know, as much as the playoffs was huge for our team, it was also huge, you know, for me to be able to accomplish something like this.
00:02:08
But I mean, everyone's career is pretty unique.
00:02:10
And mine's unique to me, you know.
00:02:14
And I think it's important to have kids out there understand that you can come from all different backgrounds and kind of achieve what you want to achieve if you put work in.
00:02:22
Yeah.
00:02:25
One of those dudes were getting traded, and your name was kind of like kind of floated out there.
00:02:29
Did that distract you?
00:02:30
Did you ever think there was a chance that you were going to go to one of these teams that for you?
00:02:36
You guys were looking way up at that point in the season.
00:02:39
Yeah.
00:02:39
Oh man.
00:02:40
Orioles could trade a boatload for me.
00:02:43
I could be on that team.
00:02:45
They kind of created...
00:02:46
Oh, the...
00:02:47
You know, whatever team...
00:02:48
Did you ever think about that?
00:02:49
And how did you handle that?
00:02:51
Yeah, I think there's every trade deadline for the last...
00:02:53
You know, two or three have kind of been my names kind of been floated around.
00:02:58
And the first one probably impacted me a little bit different than the time since then.
00:03:03
You just learned kind of how to deal with it.
00:03:04
But you know, when you're on the TV, I just kind of either leave the room if it's on the TV or I turn it off, you know, or change the channel.
00:03:13
I don't really want to...
00:03:15
Nor do I want my teammates to kind of be thinking about that stuff.
00:03:18
You know, I think that that's kind of where there's a little bit more of an impact is you're losing guys that you, anytime you trade away somebody, it sucks.
00:03:26
You know, it always is kind of suck as a teammate.
00:03:29
But yeah, I just kind of turn the TV off and at the end of the day, all I can control is me doing my job.
00:03:35
And that's really it, you know.
00:03:38
No, I have two for you.
00:03:39
And it goes off what you just said.
00:03:41
Do you guys win the DS...
00:03:44
if Jack flared, he doesn't...
00:03:45
I saw this, I saw this clip.
00:03:47
Oh, because we asked Jack.
00:03:50
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I mean, I love Jack.
00:03:52
He's a hell of a talent.
00:03:53
That's such a...
00:03:57
I would say, I mean, if there's a guy I want on the mound, that's not me on our team, I want him on the mound.
00:04:02
So I mean, he's...
00:04:03
last season was special.
00:04:05
Kpernine was, I think, career high, walks for nine, career low.
00:04:09
That's kind of the formula right.
00:04:11
And in the postseason, as you want guys that can miss bats, and get you out of trouble.
00:04:15
And, you know, you saw his starts.
00:04:17
I think he only had one bad when all the other ones were pretty dominant, you know, in terms of who he is.
00:04:22
And he was going through some stuff, too, you know, physically with his body.
00:04:25
And just him being able to take the ball every fifth day, you see the toughness that that kind of guy has.
00:04:31
And I think he, you know, has a respect to the guys in our clubhouse.
00:04:34
And, you know, I'd love to have him back for sure.
00:04:36
He's a free agent when I tell Scott Harris, he's here.
00:04:38
And just, you know, I tell him, hey, I'd love to have him back.
00:04:40
He's a free agent.
00:04:41
Yeah, that business side of the game, I just don't quite understand yet.
00:04:45
You know, why he's not with the team.
00:04:46
But, have you texted Jack?
00:04:48
Yeah, I'm coming back.
00:04:49
No, I, okay, not, not like, I just, I saw a little rumour.
00:04:52
And I go, hey, what's up?
00:04:53
Yeah.
00:04:54
Had that little conversation.
00:04:55
But, yeah, yeah, I'd love to have him back.
00:04:57
How much pinch introduce you tonight and give a great introduction to you.
00:05:03
And he said, you know, you guys have the pitching chaos and the whole deal and you get to the playoffs and you were the one guy you could count.
00:05:08
How much pressure is on you when you know, you're basically the only starter you guys really had.
00:05:14
So you have to go six, seven, eight innings every time out.
00:05:16
There's got, at some point, you're like, man, I got to do everything, right?
00:05:20
On your day.
00:05:22
Yeah, I mean, I look at us as, as a privilege to have the trust that he instills in me and the organization, you know, instilled in me and the guys in the clubhouse, you know, kind of how they felt, too.
00:05:32
So it's huge to have that trust with our guys, because I think on days that I went, myself included, we all expected to win, you know, and it showed,
00:05:42
you know, and it was fun to be a part of.
00:05:45
But also the other, you know, 12 guys we had were really good in their roles.
00:05:51
You know, I think the chaos wouldn't have worked.
00:05:55
You know, if it didn't work, it wouldn't have became what it became.
00:05:58
You know, and I mean, you know, I think if guys struggled or, you know, we weren't winning, I don't think the chaos happens.
00:06:05
You know, we probably go to more traditional route.
00:06:06
But the fact that it was winning, you know, working and winning, what those guys did, I thought was even more impressive because no one knew what day they were throwing.
00:06:16
Routines were all thrown off.
00:06:18
Guys are getting called up from AAA that didn't have as much success in AAA as they probably would have liked, even if you asked them.
00:06:24
And they're getting called up and they're doing it on the biggest stage, you know, for us.
00:06:28
You know, Sean Gunther's one that comes to mind.
00:06:30
He comes in Houston and shoves.
00:06:34
Lefty and shoves and walks off the mound with the biggest set of balls that you've ever seen.
00:06:39
And it's like, look at his career, you know, or his, you know, back story.
00:06:44
It's amazing.
00:06:45
So watching those guys do that was just as impressive as anything that I did on the mound.
00:06:50
Do you remember that feeling sitting in the dugout?
00:06:53
Because we were watching and getting excited for these games, that feeling sitting in the dugout after the guardians had taken the lead.
00:07:01
Because they showed you, they showed, right, your camera right on your face in the dugout and you were like, what was going through your head in that moment when you sat down?
00:07:10
Yeah, I've lived it a lot and I'll live it again for you guys.
00:07:14
Yeah, it was, it was tough, you know, obviously giving up a grand slam five runs in one inning.
00:07:20
Those are the only runs that gave up in the post season where it's just happened to be in one inning.
00:07:25
Yeah, it was, it was tough.
00:07:28
In the moment, you feel like you left the team down, right?
00:07:32
But what I loved about that whole situation was AJ didn't take me out of the game.
00:07:37
He left me in the game.
00:07:38
I go out and get three more outs.
00:07:39
He's in charge of the game.
00:07:41
In charge of the game.
00:07:43
Leads me in the game.
00:07:44
Let's me go get three more outs.
00:07:47
And I was ready to go as many more outs as he needed out of me.
00:07:51
You know, I think that that was, that was pretty cool and just to have that trust and, and respect out of your manager in that situation when we're down five to whatever we were.
00:08:00
It was, it was cool and kind of, I mean, the season ends, right?
00:08:05
But it was, it was a cool clubhouse afterwards.
00:08:08
You know, no one was down on themselves.
00:08:11
You know, everyone was like, hey, let's run it back.
00:08:13
You know, and I think that that was, that was pretty special, you know, to be a part of.
00:08:17
There was, you know, a couple guys that are down and it's like, hey, we were running with house money and we had a hell of a run.
00:08:23
So it was, it was fun.
00:08:26
Okay, let's get some world more positive.
00:08:28
Where are you putting that trophy?
00:08:29
For the plaque trophy, whatever.
00:08:31
Yeah, um, because sale, sale was here and you said he gave it to his dad.
00:08:35
Yeah, or are you going to hang it in your house?
00:08:37
Because Corbin Birds, like hung it in his locker.
00:08:39
So everyone that walked by had to bat.
00:08:40
Yeah, I remember that.
00:08:41
He like had it like above his head in his locker.
00:08:43
Yeah, the one thing I thought, the one thing I didn't like about, not that I didn't like when the sion was the award weighted until today to get it when I want it two months ago.
00:08:53
It's like, I would have, I would have been in my office every day with it behind me, you know, I'm playing my video games look back side on my video games, but, uh, yeah, it'll, it'll probably come with me to Lakeland and then Detroit and then,
00:09:07
you know, back to Arizona.
00:09:08
I got a great while you're in Lakeland.
00:09:09
I got a great place for it.
00:09:10
My house.
00:09:12
I live 30 minutes living in Lakeland.
00:09:14
I live in Orlando.
00:09:15
Orlando is driving right up Lakeland.
00:09:16
He's supposed to know.
00:09:17
Is that a trophy?
00:09:18
Tarek was looking at me and he's like, you live in Lakeland?
00:09:21
I was like, I would have asked for it.
00:09:22
I kind of like that.
00:09:23
He went to Lakeland.
00:09:25
I don't know.
00:09:27
That's right.
00:09:28
Your side is closer to Lakeland, right?
00:09:30
Oh, yeah, I'm in Orlando.
00:09:31
That's what I'm not close to.
00:09:32
So my question is, why would he put it in your house?
00:09:34
Well, would you rather have it in Lakeland in some random house or my house?
00:09:36
It's secure.
00:09:37
I'd actually not go to Lakeland with me because I'm standing on it.
00:09:39
See, down home.
00:09:40
I'll probably have it shipped up.
00:09:42
Yes.
00:09:42
To Detroit.
00:09:43
Have your wife bring it when she comes to the jury?
00:09:45
Maybe I'll bring it.
00:09:45
I like that.
00:09:46
Bring it to the club house.
00:09:47
Just put it in there.
00:09:48
Maybe I might hang it above my lock.
00:09:50
I don't like the idea.
00:09:51
Yeah, do it.
00:09:52
It would be motivating for the rest of the staff.
00:09:54
Yeah, it's not a bad idea.
00:09:55
That's true.
00:09:56
Yeah, it would be much better if they would do something like that.
00:09:57
He's way too humble to do that.
00:09:59
It's the way I would do that.
00:10:01
But it is, it is a, it's a flex.
00:10:04
Yeah.
00:10:05
Hey, I got one more for you.
00:10:06
So you're the best pitcher in the league.
00:10:08
We saw Boris here today.
00:10:11
Does he ever get any phone calls in the off season from the Tigers?
00:10:13
Like, hey, you want to have a little conversation about a tarot-long term?
00:10:16
Uh, you should ask him.
00:10:18
We tried.
00:10:18
He won't come on.
00:10:19
No, he is.
00:10:20
No, no, no, no.
00:10:21
Don't say he won't come on.
00:10:21
No, he will.
00:10:22
He will.
00:10:22
He will.
00:10:23
He's just trying to, he's got a couple guys got to sign a little more work to finish.
00:10:26
Yeah, he's got some guys.
00:10:27
He's got to take care of.
00:10:28
Yeah.
00:10:29
You let him handle all of that.
00:10:30
Yeah, yeah.
00:10:31
I mean, I trust him with everything.
00:10:33
He's, he's led me nothing but to the right places and the way he's handled my career and to the whole draft process.
00:10:38
He's been great.
00:10:39
So, um, I truly meant what I said, you know, and he gives me every resource to where the whole business side of the game.
00:10:45
I don't, I don't like thinking about it.
00:10:47
I don't really want to handle it.
00:10:48
I'll let the guys who are, you know, I pay to handle it.
00:10:51
And then I'm going to go play baseball, so that's what I love the game.
00:10:54
That's that's where I want to keep my focus.
00:10:58
Okay, cool.
00:10:59
And I feel I'm good about the roster.
00:11:01
Hey, man.
00:11:02
Yeah, I mean, there could be like one more.
00:11:04
Like, Breggman, Breggman.
00:11:05
Yeah, kind of good.
00:11:06
There might be one more.
00:11:06
He, right?
00:11:07
He's a boring guy.
00:11:08
He would look really good.
00:11:11
He's not just a boring guy.
00:11:12
He's a hinge guy.
00:11:13
He's a hinge in board.
00:11:14
Yeah, you've got the connections.
00:11:15
Yeah, there's double choice.
00:11:17
Yeah, Tiger fans are, they're keeping an eye on it.
00:11:20
Yeah, no, I'm excited.
00:11:21
I mean, the team that we had last year, we were the youngest team in the big leagues, the youngest postseason roster, probably in a long time.
00:11:28
I'd love to see numbers on that.
00:11:29
So we didn't lose anyone on that postseason roster for agency or non-tender or anything like that.
00:11:35
So I'm going to be a lot of growth in that sense too.
00:11:39
So I'm excited to see kind of the future.
00:11:41
And I'm excited to see the guys in Lakeland too.
00:11:43
That's going to be a ton of fun.
00:11:44
And to compete against each other early is fun.
00:11:48
You know, and then take that ride in the spring training and start beating other teams up pretty good.
00:11:52
Yeah, that's the beauty of the young teams.
00:11:54
They're all under team controls.
00:11:55
So you're like, "Hey, everyone's coming back."
00:11:57
That isn't anybody.
00:11:58
That is true.
00:11:59
Two more weddings.
00:12:00
Two more weddings.
00:12:00
No, they had a billy game.
00:12:02
The team loves it.
00:12:03
Yeah, every offseason.
00:12:04
We're young, married, and gays, we love it.
00:12:06
It's crazy.
00:12:07
Too many weddings.
00:12:08
That's good stories on the game.
00:12:09
Exactly.
00:12:10
You got that feel stuff.
00:12:11
Let's focus on the field.
00:12:12
That's what we want.
00:12:13
Good to see you, dude.
00:12:14
Congratulations.
00:12:15
Nice speech.
00:12:16
This was really fun.
00:12:17
Thank you.
00:12:17
You're great to have you.
00:12:18
Appreciate you.
00:12:19
Terrick's schoolboy.
00:12:19
That's on FT, JJ Hinch.
00:12:22
Tigers manager joining us right now.
00:12:23
Right after school.
00:12:24
So perfect timing.
00:12:25
Yeah.
00:12:26
How was that for you?
00:12:27
That was pretty awesome.
00:12:28
Oh, right.
00:12:28
We call him AJ since spring.
00:12:29
Yeah.
00:12:30
He's not upset right now.
00:12:31
I mean, no career, AJ.
00:12:33
No comment.
00:12:34
I mean, there's a lot.
00:12:35
That's a long history.
00:12:36
Yeah.
00:12:37
I tell you what, I've gotten a chance to come to this dinner before.
00:12:41
And I've been lucky enough to be around a lot of award winners and things like that.
00:12:46
I'd be on that stage and be able to present to him at this time and this organization, at that point of his career, super rewarding for me.
00:12:53
And just an incredible night to honor, you know, one of the guys that was a key component of the playoff team.
00:13:02
And kickstarting, you know, a dominant, you know, hopefully run for, you know, foreseeable future for him.
00:13:09
Do you feel like this is the last time you can look back at 24?
00:13:12
You know what I'm saying?
00:13:13
Like you can't mention, we're so close to spring training.
00:13:15
This is like that one little last look back appreciation.
00:13:18
And then you're going to be in Lakewood.
00:13:19
So one of our first base coach, Anthony Aiposi, who's been around the league in a couple of different places is like, he's famous on our team for saying, hey, the moment's over.
00:13:28
Like as soon as a guy hits a homer, he's not going to give you high five at first base.
00:13:31
He's not going to like, he's not going to love on you too much.
00:13:33
He's like the moment's over.
00:13:34
So like, maybe tonight, the moment's over for 24 and get to 25, all reminisce one more time with our team.
00:13:42
Because we have to acknowledge that people are going to look at us a little differently because we're coming into the season, coming off the playoffs and the run and all that stuff.
00:13:51
And so in this standards, we're kind of new.
00:13:54
And it's set.
00:13:55
Now I think we have an opportunity.
00:13:57
I've said it forward like, hey, I want to win the division.
00:14:00
And that to do that, we got to go over to Steven Votes team.
00:14:03
We got to go through the royals.
00:14:04
We got to go through Minnesota and do our part.
00:14:08
So hopefully we just don't wait to the last six weeks to do it.
00:14:10
And get off to a better start.
00:14:13
AJ went, Eric was here.
00:14:15
He mentioned how the team is sold to the deadline every year of his career, essentially.
00:14:19
This year, after you traded Flaherty, and where you were at that point in the season, how did you hold it together?
00:14:25
How did you get to the point where that run was possible?
00:14:29
Well, I needed a day or two, because I don't love it at all.
00:14:33
I mean, obviously, as the manager, you want to win.
00:14:36
And you want your players to win.
00:14:38
And you want them to experience it.
00:14:40
And I remember having a meeting shortly after the deadline.
00:14:43
And we got in our room and got everybody together.
00:14:46
I got everybody's attention.
00:14:47
And I looked around, I'm like, hey, who's one in here before?
00:14:50
And Matt Verling, who was with the Phillies on their World Series team, was one of the only guys that could actually raise his hand and say, hey, I've won before.
00:14:58
Nobody else had won.
00:14:59
And certainly nobody had won its Tigers.
00:15:01
And so I asked what kind of team you want to be.
00:15:04
And what we need to do in order to be better.
00:15:07
And in the next day, guys like Terrick and Riley Green, and we got Carp Healthy, got Riley Healthy, we started to buy into-- I mean, I meant it when I said Terrick's Google and pitching chaos.
00:15:19
Like, it was chaos.
00:15:21
But it was the best chance for us to win more games.
00:15:23
And the more we won, the more confident we got.
00:15:26
And look where it took us.
00:15:28
What do we not know about Terrick's Google?
00:15:30
He's on a national stage.
00:15:32
He's the guy.
00:15:33
He's your horse.
00:15:35
He's got-- he was sitting here with his award.
00:15:37
He's accessible too.
00:15:39
He's accessible.
00:15:40
He gets it, like, he's just very aware.
00:15:41
But what do we not know about?
00:15:43
So I mean, obviously, he's a guy that probably hates losing more than he likes winning.
00:15:50
Like, he is a very high bar for himself.
00:15:55
His standards are really high.
00:15:56
Like, all these dudes.
00:15:57
Ace is these front of the rotation dudes.
00:15:59
Like, they're amazing, right?
00:16:01
With what they do and how they go about the prep is there.
00:16:04
I think the accountability part is what fans and people around the game don't know.
00:16:10
He'll have a bad game.
00:16:10
I'll pull him out.
00:16:11
And Terrick has had so many good games.
00:16:14
I've gotten to witness it from the top row.
00:16:15
And he hates coming out of games.
00:16:17
And so there's always that interaction with him and he's coming out of the game.
00:16:20
If I can do it on the mound, it's public.
00:16:22
He won't really embarrass me.
00:16:23
He won't try to be too big a deal.
00:16:25
One day, I brought him into the dugout.
00:16:27
And I was like, hey, listen.
00:16:28
I'm going to go with somebody different you've done.
00:16:30
And he's like, why?
00:16:31
And I'm like, why?
00:16:32
And he's like, tell me I sucked.
00:16:34
Tell me I sucked.
00:16:35
He just wanted to know.
00:16:36
Tell me I sucked.
00:16:37
And that became, like, kind of a funny story between him and I to say he only wants his accountability.
00:16:42
And yet he said, when you left him here in that game against the Guardians, when he gave up the five runs, that was a big deal to him.
00:16:48
That you didn't take him out.
00:16:49
I'll trust him, you know, until he can't pitch.
00:16:53
I mean, he is the guy you want on the mound in the biggest moment of the season.
00:16:56
And I'll put him on the mound every single chance I get.
00:17:00
You couldn't take him.
00:17:01
He's a monster.
00:17:02
So if he says he's going back out, you let him.
00:17:04
You do what you do with Charlie Manu.
00:17:06
You do what the best part of this part was that we stayed on air.
00:17:09
And we stayed in the interview when Przyski tried to come in.
00:17:12
Yeah, I like him.
00:17:13
Exactly.
00:17:14
I like doing things in control.
00:17:15
Yeah, I appreciate it.
00:17:16
It was a real agent.
00:17:17
It was a real agent.
00:17:18
All right, we'll see you later.
00:17:19
Good stuff.
00:17:19
AJ, great to see you.
00:17:20
Appreciate it.
00:17:21
