If you had to trade one: Cade Cunningham or Tarik Skubal?

As rebuilds continue for the Tigers and Pistons, Costa and Jansen raise an uncomfortable question: "Skubal or Cade? Death not an option, you have to trade one to jump-start these two teams."

Cade Cunningham is extension eligible this summer, with the Pistons coming off the worst season in franchise history. Tarik Skubal is likely headed for a huge payday in a couple years, with the Tigers stuck in a 10-year playoff drought.

"Ideally," says Costa, "you’d keep and build around Cade, you’d pay Skubal, your payroll would flourish, we’d have great teams all around us. But for the purposes of this conversation, you gotta pick one to trade."

Jansen says it would make sense for the Tigers to trade Skubal if "you can get an established bat, an everyday player that can come in and energize the lineup."

"I think where the Tigers are and with the depth of arms that they have, the benefit is there for them to get over the hump. On the flip side, what has Cade done? And what are you going to get for Cade? Is it going to be enough to jumpstart a build for the Pistons? I would say Skubal."

Costa points out that once Skubal hits unrestricted free agency in 2027, he might be done in Detroit anyway -- and it might behoove the Tigers to sell high before that happens: "It would be a move I don’t want to make, I like keeping good players. But Skubal is repped by Scott Boras, and Boras is going to say Gerrit Cole got $36 million a year (in 2019). We’re going to push for $40, and we want that to be a nine or 10-year deal.

"So that’s a $400 million contract. Is that even advisable to pay an arm $40 million a year for 10 years knowing that they can end up on the shelf for 18 months at a moment's notice? There is a real question over what to do with Tarik Skubal. If they’re not going to hit, if they’re not going to pay him, does (trading him) make sense?"

Compared to Cunningham, Skubal is "going to be longer term, bigger risk, more money for ownership that I don’t know if they’re going to be able to stomach it," says Costa. "Cade, they’ve gotta spend the money on someone. He’s 22, he is a lead guard.

"Do I wish I had more conviction on what he’s going to be, do I wish he had been healthier, do I wish they had supported him better? All of those things are true. But I would pick Cade between the two to keep and I would trade Skubal."