Donovan Mitchell had the kind of Saturday night reaction that said everything about the Tarik Skubal trade before most fans could even finish processing it.
The Cavaliers star and lifelong Mets fan took to X, formerly Twitter, after the Los Angeles Dodgers landed the two-time Cy Young winner from the Detroit Tigers in one of the biggest moves of the trade deadline.
“Hold on the Dodgers did what??????” Mitchell wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
That response fits the way Mitchell has long followed baseball from the outside but like a true fan from the inside, especially when the Mets or the sport’s biggest names are involved. He had already been sounding the alarm months earlier, posting in October about reported tension between Skubal and the Tigers and hinting at the possibility of a bigger-market move.
The deal itself matched the hype. Los Angeles sent outfielder Zyhir Hope and right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith to Detroit for Skubal, who won back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards in 2024 and 2025.
For the Dodgers, the move only adds to a rotation that already includes Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow, assuming full health. Around the league, that group is already being talked about as one of the most dominant starting staffs ever put together.
Skubal was quick to embrace the move.
“I’m excited to be a Dodger,” Skubal said. “I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys, and chase three championships in a row.”
Detroit’s return included a pair of Dodgers’ Top 100 prospects, though neither is expected to help the Tigers at the major-league level right away. Skubal had made 156 career starts for the organization since his 2020 debut and had grown into one of the franchise’s defining players before the situation led him out the door ahead of what was expected to be free agency this winter.
Mitchell’s stunned reaction ended up mirroring the mood across baseball: the reigning champions somehow found a way to get even stronger.
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