Fans of both teams seem to hate this proposed NY Mets-Tigers trade for Tarik Skubal

As the Tarik Skubal rumor mill continues to turn, expect the New York Mets to be prominently featured as a potential landing spot. The club's collection of young major league-ready talent makes it one of the best matches for the Detroit Tigers, but that doesn't mean making a deal is easy.

Former Mets general manager Steve Phillips tried his hand at concocting such a package to bring the league's best lefty to Queens. In the process, he drew the ire of both fan bases, with Mets fans believing they'd be giving up too much while Tigers fans proclaiming the deal isn't nearly enough.

Mets and Tigers fans' reactions to this Tarik Skubal mock trade highlight how difficult it will be to get a deal done

Trades between contenders are rare for a reason. They simply aren't easy to consummate, especially when a superstar is involved on one side. The acquiring team is always left with the question of whether or not sacrificing so much from the big league roster to acquire the star will actually leave it in a better position once the dust settles.

The team trading away a stud like Skubal will look at such a deal as a magic bullet of sorts. They might lose the best single player in the deal, but their price in doing so will be filling nearly every hole on their roster.

With that in mind, that's exactly the standpoint that Phillips took when he suggested the Mets send out starting pitchers Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat alongside third baseman Brett Baty and second baseman Luisangel Acuña.

In a vacuum, Tigers fans might have some ground to stand on in claiming that this is too light. If they're going to trade Skubal, they'd want their best shot at getting a young hurler with ace potential coming back, and while Tong and Sproat are no slouches, that player would be Nolan McLean.

On top of that, the idea of Acuña being a suitable Gleyber Torres replacement is laughable. At best, he'd be a dart throw and likely wouldn't beat out any of the incumbents for the starting job. As for Baty, his 2025 was finally a positive after his struggles to grab playing time the past couple of years, but it's not as if he's actually reached the lofty potential he once had.

What Tigers fans need to understand is that, despite Skubal's otherworldly talents, a precedent has been set that starting pitchers in their walk years don't go for as much as one would expect. That's especially true for Skubal, who is hell bent on testing the open market and will command a record-breaking contract once he gets there.

For the Mets, the fact of the matter is, in order to land a fish like Skubal, you're going to have to open a hole elsewhere on your major league roster. Detroit has its eyes on a World Series run with or without Skubal, meaning they're not going to be settling for some 19-year-old in A ball even if that hypothetical player has loads of potential.

They're going to be looking at pieces that can help them now, and in the future, which means young major leaguers and prospects who are breaking down the door are going to be must-haves.

In fact, if both sides hate a deal, then it's probably a fair value. That might be shocking to some, given the general sentiment regarding Phillips' tenure as general manager around these parts, but the deal he proposed, leaving both sides wanting more, means that fair value was probably extracted on either side.

The reality Mets fans must face is that if the club actually does pull off a deal for Skubal, it will create another problem that needs a solution elsewhere on the roster. Still, the magnitude of that problem will be much smaller than the seismic impact that having an ace like Skubal atop the rotation will make on their World Series chances.