Tigers ace Tarik Skubal continues to reach for a soon-to-be-extinct goal -- 200 innings

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Feb 19, 2025

Published in Baseball

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LAKELAND, Fla. — Tigers’ ace lefty Tarik Skubal isn’t big on setting individual statistical goals. Team wins are more his thing.

But there is one stat he sets his sights on: 200 innings.

“I plan on doing that the rest of my career,” he said. “This job is to pitch as deep into every single start I have and make the job hard on AJ (Hinch, manager) to take me out of the game.”

Skubal threw 211 innings last season, counting 19 in the postseason. He became the first Tigers’ pitcher to exceed 200 innings since Justin Verlander in 2007.

“The guys who throw 200 innings, those are the horses around the league,” Skubal said. “And I want to be one of those guys.”

It’s a noble goal. It is also one that belongs to a bygone era of the game. These days, with pitcher injuries at an all-time high and with analytics telling teams not to let starters face hitters a third time in a game, pitchers are being pulled earlier and earlier — either as a strategy or for workload management.

Only four pitchers threw 200 innings in the regular season last year. Skubal and two others crossed the threshold with postseason innings.

These days, 180 innings is the new 200.

“I don’t think it’s viewed as dangerous,” said Hinch when asked about pitchers working 200 innings. “It’s a long season, so you want both things to exist. You want guys to want to be in the game as long as possible, which means pitches 90 to 110 need to be as effective as any previous 20 pitches in the game.”

Skubal certainly is built for that. He faced 146 batters last season when his pitch count was 76 to 100, and he limited those hitters to a .178 average and a .274 slugging with 41 strikeouts. He only faced three hitters after his 101st pitch and struck two of those out.

“If you can post, 200 innings has always been something to reach for,” Hinch said. “Do the math, you make 30 to 32 starts at six or seven innings — it indicates quality. It indicates health. It indicates trust to stay in the game.

“It indicates that you are as good or better an option as the mega bullpens that are being built today.”

But it’s the rare starting pitcher whose history of facing hitters a third time through the order will be better than a fresh, hand-picked matchup reliever. Thus, the number of 200-inning pitchers is and has been in steady decline.

“The badge of honor comes from a lot of different variables, not just one,” Hinch said. “I like (200 innings) as a driving force because that means he posts, he's good and he’s holding his stuff. It’s our responsibility to make those decisions. But you never want the player not to reach for it.”