‘No surprise, right?’ The rich get richer as Dodgers land Tarik Skubal from the Tigers
LOS ANGELES — As the Red Sox were filing into the visiting clubhouse at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night, the news lit up their phones:
Read more As trade deadline looms, Sonny Gray shares the wisdom of his past experiences on the block
The Dodgers had traded for Tarik Skubal.
“No surprise, right?” said Ceddanne Rafaela, whose two solo home runs lifted the Sox to a 3-2 victory against the Dodgers. “I knew they would do something.”
That’s how all of baseball felt. Once the Tigers made their ace available, the Dodgers became the favorites to acquire him. They sent Detroit righthanders River Ryan and Brady Smith along with outfielder Zyhir Hope.
All three are prized prospects, but the Dodgers are the ultimate win-now team as they seek a third consecutive World Series championship. No team has done that since the Derek Jeter Yankees from 1998-2000.
Skubal has won back-to-back Cy Young Awards and is 38-15 with a 2.40 ERA over the last three seasons. He also has a 2.04 ERA in six postseason starts and struck out 56 over 39⅔ innings.
Skubal is a combination of power and precision, brushing triple digits with his fastball and having command of a killer changeup.
Now the Dodgers can line up Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Shohei Ohtani as a postseason rotation with Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Emmett Sheehan, and Justin Wrobleski among their many other options.
Skubal also will allow them to use Ohtani carefully in the regular season as he deals with knee and biceps injuries. He has not pitched since July 3, but all that matters for the Dodgers is that he’s ready for October.
The backdrop to all this is how adeptly the Dodgers swing their financial hammer. Skubal will make roughly $11 million the rest of the season, pushing their luxury tax payroll over $440 million.
Adding a lefthander of Skubal’s quality won’t make the Dodgers unbeatable. But it sure pushes them closer to that line.
The Braves, Brewers, Cubs, Phillies, and Rays were seen as contenders for Skubal. But the Dodgers don’t only succeed because of their financial might. They also have a productive farm system that churns out prospects.
Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris decided to trade Skubal for prospects rather than watch him leave as a free agent after the season. The return then would have only a compensatory draft pick.
Ryan, 27, started four games and had a 1.33 ERA in 2024 for the Dodgers, then missed the 2025 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. He has made eight starts at Triple-A this season.
The 21-year-old Hope is tearing up Double-A. Smith, also 21, is in High-A.
Hope was expendable, in part, because former Northeastern outfielder Mike Sirota has climbed the prospect rankings since being selected in the third round of the 2024 draft by the Reds. The Dodgers acquired him as part of a three-team trade in January 2025.
But there are no guarantees in baseball. The Sox had only four hits on Saturday night and still beat the Dodgers and Yamamoto on the road.
If the Dodgers win another World Series, it will strengthen Major League Baseball’s call for a salary cap. The league contends that fans want a cap because they are concerned about the financial disparity in the game.
That Skubal landed with the Dodgers only makes their case stronger.
Or it could backfire. If another team, say the Red Sox, finds a way to beat the Dodgers in the Series, that would make for supreme entertainment.
Such a scenario seemed impossible at the end of June. The Sox have since won 27 of their last 32 games and have the third-best record in the American League. They have outscored the Dodgers 12-6 the last two games.
Read more Trump says he will order halt to Iran strikes after parameters reached for deal to end war
“Anything is possible in baseball,” Rafaela said. “We’re proving that.”
Post Comment