The New York Yankees have one of the best and deepest starting rotations in baseball. They don’t have a clear need to import another starter. That’s what makes the idea of trading for Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal both uncomfortable and compelling.With six weeks until the trade deadline, the Yankees already project as one of the deepest rotations in baseball. Cam Schlittler is the early favorite to win the American League Cy Young Award. Max Fried (once healthy), Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers give the Yankees a mix of frontline talent and depth that most teams would envy. In most years, the Yankees would approach the deadline hoping that this group can all be healthy in October, allowing them to focus on their other trade deadline needs.Why the AL Wild Card is up for grabsKen Rosenthal and Johnny SweetBut most seasons don’t include the possibility of a pitcher like Skubal hitting the market in mid-summer.If the Tigers decide to sell, Skubal instantly becomes the best player available at the deadline. That alone should force the Yankees’ front office to consider if bolstering a strength is the right path to take. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and owner Hal Steinbrenner frequently say that a club can never have too much pitching.The American League is weak this season, so it’s still unclear whether the Tigers will decide to trade the reigning Cy Young winner. Detroit is 11 games under .500 and only five games out of the third wild-card spot. In the expanded wild-card era, clubs are less likely to sell if they believe they have a shot at the postseason, and the Tigers had World Series aspirations entering the season. Since the addition of a third wild-card team in 2022, two clubs — the 2022 Philadelphia Phillies and the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks — have advanced to the World Series as the last wild-card team. So it’s not yet a given that the Tigers will give up on their season.The No. 1 reason why the Yankees should trade for Skubal, if he became available, is that he would raise their odds of winning the World Series, which is the whole point of every season this club plays. The postseason journey can be frustrating; the Yankees won only once in their AL Division Series with Toronto last season, but this is one of the few franchises where fans should almost always be thinking bigger picture instead of being overly consumed with the day-to-day results.The Yankees have a 98.8 percent chance of reaching the postseason and a 14.7 percent chance of winning the World Series, according to FanGraphs. Getting Skubal would almost certainly raise those odds and potentially help the Yankees secure a bye to an AL Division Series.Skubal, 29, has been the best pitcher in baseball over the past two seasons. Across 2024 and 2025, no starter accumulated more fWAR than the left-hander. His ERA, strikeout rate, walk rate, home run rate and FIP all rated in the top five among all starters. Even accounting for a recent elbow procedure that briefly interrupted his season, the underlying metrics are still in line with who he’s been. In his two starts since returning from the NanoNeedle procedure, Skubal has allowed five runs and 12 hits across 10 innings pitched, but his Stuff+ metrics have not fallen. He’ll make his third start since his procedure on Wednesday against the Yankees.The baseball argument for acquiring Skubal is less about filling a hole than it is about compressing variance in October. Clubs with strong rotations can sometimes be neutralized by even one bad outing. Against the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS last season — because of how the schedule transpired with the Yankees playing in the Wild Card Series — they were forced to start Luis Gil in Game 1, and then both Fried and Rodón were blasted in Games 2 and 3.The Los Angeles Dodgers are a good example of a club that oversaturates its bullpen with an excess of starters. Their bullpen last season was their biggest flaw, but when the postseason began, they had eight different pitchers on their World Series roster who had starting experience. Nothing is stopping the Yankees from following that path with the depth they would have.Adding Skubal would also provide more cover for the possibility of another injury to the Yankees’ rotation. Cole and Rodón both underwent elbow surgeries and had their seasons delayed; Fried is dealing with a bone bruise in his elbow; Schlittler and Weathers are on pace for the biggest workloads of their careers; and Warren is coming off the heaviest season of his career. Add Skubal, and suddenly the Yankees could enter October with a potential four-man rotation of aces: Skubal, Schlittler, Fried and Cole. Rodón could become a luxury rather than a necessity, giving New York the flexibility to deploy one of its frontline starters in a multi-inning relief role if that’s the direction Yankees manager Aaron Boone wanted to turn. Last season, Roki Sasaki emerged as a dominant closer in the postseason for the Dodgers. Could someone like Schlittler, for example, do the same if the Yankees added Skubal?The benefits of adding Skubal would also extend beyond the rotation. The Yankees need bullpen help, along with a right-handed-hitting catcher. If everyone is healthy, at least one capable starter would be pushed into a relief role for the postseason. Replacing lower-leverage relievers with pitchers like Warren or Weathers would significantly improve the quality of the bullpen. Add Skubal to the mix and another impact arm becomes available for the October bullpen. Trading for Skubal could simultaneously raise the floor and ceiling of both the rotation and bullpen.The obvious concern is the cost.There’s no guarantee that the Yankees would sign Skubal, a pending free agent, beyond this season. He is repped by Scott Boras, meaning he’ll undoubtedly test free agency and likely sign with the club that offers the most money. Depending on the timing of a potential trade, Skubal would be owed roughly $9 million for the rest of the season. Because the Yankees are over the fourth luxury tax threshold, they would pay a 110 percent penalty on every dollar spent.History suggests that the price to land in Skubal will be steep. When teams acquired rental aces such as CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Zack Greinke and David Price, the return package included a premier prospect, another highly regarded young player and additional depth pieces.The Yankees have the talent to enter that conversation.Shortstop George Lombard Jr., whose dad is the bench coach for the Tigers, is likely untouchable. Lombard could make his debut for New York later this season, and he’s seen as the best defender at shortstop across the entire organization. If Lombard is off the table, that would leave Carlos Lagrange, Dax Kilby and Elmer Rodríguez as the Yankees’ next-best prospects. Lagrange is being positioned to join the bullpen before the trade deadline. Kilby has been hurt for nearly the entire season, while Rodríguez has made four starts in the big leagues this season.But could the Yankees offer either Warren or Weathers? Warren won’t become a free agent until 2031, and he’s proven that he’s a good MLB starter. Weathers won’t become a free agent until 2029, and his strikeout rate this season is 15th among MLB starters.Would trading Warren or Weathers for a few months of Skubal be risky? Yes.And if that is the cost, should that risk prevent the Yankees from pursuing him? No.The teams that acquired Sabathia, Lee, Greinke and Price all largely moved on from the players they dealt without much regret, albeit without winning a championship that year. But the Yankees are positioned much better than each of those organizations was at the time.New York City was just reminded of what can happen when major trades work. Are any New York Knicks fans today lamenting the fact that the organization traded RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley for OG Anunoby? How about the five first-round picks for Mikal Bridges?Winning changes the conversation of trades. New Yorkers weren’t dwelling on what the Knicks gave up when they took over lower Manhattan last week. Instead of debating the cost-benefit analysis, Knicks fans have been busy creating lifelong memories of celebrating the feeling of being a champion.The Yankees haven’t paraded down the Canyon of Heroes in 16 years. That is an eternity for this franchise. If Detroit makes Skubal available, the Yankees shouldn’t hesitate just because they have enough pitching. They should pursue him because there may not be another player on the market who could dramatically swing their World Series hopes.For a franchise that is always measured in rings, that is reason enough to swing big.