Tarik Skubal Ripped For His Antics During WBC, And Rightfully So

The dust is starting to settle. The confetti is mostly gone. LoanDepot Park is quiet for the first time in weeks. 

Just like that, the World Baseball Classic is over. It goes right back into the closet for the next few years, and we'll all move on, right?

Well … I don't know. This feels different. People are angry today. Frankly, people have been angry all tournament long. Something never felt right with this USA team. Something was off from the jump. It never clicked. They never clicked. 

You can point to a dozen reasons the USA ultimately lost. I'll get to them all. In my mind, though, the biggest loser from this whole thing is a guy who pitched a couple innings nearly two weeks ago when nobody was watching yet. 

I think Tarik Skubal comes out of this looking really, reaaaaaaaaallllllly bad:

Tarik Subal , unfortunately, set the tone

So, here's the thing. That was a relatively harmless post put out by the Detroit Tigers a few hours before Tuesday's WBC final between the USA and Venezuela. The Americans all wore the USA hockey jerseys to the ballpark last night. It was a cool moment. A cool picture. It got everyone fired up. 

But, this post from the Tigers – and this look from Tarik Skubal – was everything wrong with the World Baseball Classic as it pertains to the USA. 

Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, has been getting DRAGGED by fans for two weeks now. And I mean dragged. I don't think his stock has ever been lower. 

Trust me, I've heard from several Tigers fans. They are DONE with him. 

All the drama going into the tournament was around Skubal. Would he pitch? Would he skip it? He's in the final year of a contract with the Tigers, is a Scott Boras client, and is going to get a mammoth contract from somebody next season (assuming there is a next season). 

He chose to pitch one game – USA's second pool game against Great Britain. He threw three innings, gave up one run, and the USA cruised to a 9-1 win. And that was it. 

He hemmed and hawed about leaving the team being "one of the tougher decisions" he'd ever made. He mulled pitching again. He said the outrage towards him wasn't justified. 

But he left. He chose to leave. And then, he came back for the semifinal round to sit in the dugout and watch. He even said he drove through a thunderstorm from Lakeland to make it on time. Whoopty-doo. 

He stayed for the championship game to wear the hockey jersey and sit in the dugout and watch while Garrett Whitlock threw for the third time in five days. 

It was a bad look for Skubal, a bad tweet from the Tigers. In a nutshell, it was everything wrong with Team USA this tournament. 

You're either all in, or you're out

I could go on and on. The vitriol toward Tarik Skubal the past week or so has been off the charts. Fox kept showing him in the dugout last night as the US looked lifeless on the field, and that certainly didn't help. 

I've said this from the jump: Either play, or don't. This whole half-measure nonsense from the USA this tournament stunk from the onset. 

You know who's not getting dragged right now? Garrett Crotchet, who is probably the actual best pitcher in the American League. Mark DeRosa has said many times that he tried to get Crotchet to play, but he wouldn't do it because of his workload last season. 

And you know what? That's fine. That's fair. I get it. If you don't want to play, or feel like you can't, then don't play. The tournament is played at a stupid time of year. That's not Tarik Skubal's fault. 

But nobody has said a word about Garrett Crochet this whole time. Not a word. And that's because he was clear from the beginning that he wasn't going to be able to go all-in. 

Tarik Skubal tried to have it both ways, and he came out of this thing looking awful. He was the kid in college who did nothing in the group project for an entire semester, and then showed up on presentation day and tried to get an A. 

It's not entirely his fault, and he's not entirely alone. Mark DeRosa said after the game that Mason Miller was only available in a save situation last night per the Padres' request. Again, this half-measure stuff has to stop, or what's the point of even playing in this thing? 

Tarik Skubal isn't the reason the US lost to Venezuela. Aaron Judge forgot how to hit. Kyle Schwarber struck out three times. Alex Bregman was awful the entire tournament. Garrett Whitlock clearly didn't have it in the ninth. Mark DeRosa should probably never manage another game. 

But the Skubal drama was percolating the entire time. Something felt off from Game 1. 

Perhaps we should've seen last night's loss coming.