Zyhir Hope shrugs off Tarik Skubal trade pressure

It's not easy being the guy Detroit got for a 2-time Cy Young winner. Hope went on Foul Territory Tuesday, and the hosts asked him about it straight away.

Foul Territory

@FoulTerritoryTV

Being known as “the guy traded for Tarik Skubal” comes with MASSIVE expectations. Zyhir Hope says he isn’t letting them affect him.

Look at what he's being measured against. The Tigers sent Skubal, a back-to-back AL Cy Young winner, to the Dodgers this summer for a 3-prospect package: Hope plus right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith. Since mid-2023, Skubal had gone 38-15 with a 2.40 ERA over 78 starts, which made him about as dominant as any pitcher in baseball. When you're the headliner coming back for that, every slump gets read as a referendum on the trade.

Hope also has a long-shot backstory, which makes the 'centerpiece' label even funnier. The Cubs took him in the 11th round of the 2023 draft. In 2024 they shipped him to the Dodgers in the Michael Busch deal, and now he's the main piece Detroit got for its ace. Before he turned 22 he'd been traded twice, both times in a deal people actually remember.

So far he's held up his end. Across 124 Double-A games for 2 organizations in 2026, Hope hit.287 with 29 homers, 111 RBIs and 26 steals. That 25-homer, 25-steal, 100-RBI combination put him in very small company among minor leaguers this year. He's still hitting in the Arizona Fall League with the Scottsdale Scorpions, where he went deep this past weekend.

The best moment of the appearance had nothing to do with the trade, though. Asked about the automated ball-strike challenge system, Hope admitted he basically gave up on it after 1 try.

Foul Territory

@FoulTerritoryTV

Zyhir Hope challenged ONE call, then decided the ABS system wasn’t for him. 😭

Honestly, that's a fun answer from a 21-year-old who is supposed to be under a ton of pressure. You challenge once, decide you'd rather swing it, and move on. That's the same mindset he described about the Skubal comparisons: the noise exists, he just isn't spending energy on it.

Next comes the timeline. Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris has said Hope could make an impact in Detroit as soon as 2027. Until then the Skubal tag stays with him whether he wants it or not. Judging by Tuesday, he isn't sweating it.