The Yankees came up empty in the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes, and that was enough for Max Kellerman to unload.
After the Dodgers landed the two-time Cy Young winner late Saturday night, the former ESPN host fired off on X/Twitter, calling the Yankees “dumber” than Los Angeles and saying they “lack guts.”
There was at least some real movement between New York and Detroit before Skubal ended up in Dodger blue. According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the Yankees were in “serious” talks with the Tigers, and those discussions did not include prized prospect George Lombard Jr.
Instead, the Dodgers closed the deal with a prospect package that, as several Dodgers reporters noted, was built from pieces the club had previously acquired in trades for Michael Busch and Matt Beaty. In other words, the move was about roster maneuvering, not simply financial muscle.
Skubal, 29, is headed for free agency after this season, and now he gets a shot at helping the Dodgers chase something no team has pulled off since the Yankees from 1998-2000: three straight championships.
“It’s crazy,” Skubal, 29, told reporters, per Detroit SportsNet. “Going into the season, this isn’t what I planned on doing, but circumstances change, situations change, and I’m very appreciative of everything the Tigers have done for me.
Just drafting me in 2018 and giving a kid a chance out of a small school and giving me every resource to use... I feel like I’ve experienced a lot and gone through the ups and downs and gone through a lot of failure early in my career and this club never stopped believing in me, kept rolling me back out there every fifth day when I probably didn’t deserve to be so that’s something I’ll never take for granted.
“At this time I’m excited to be a Dodger. I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row.
It’s hard to do so I’m excited to be a part of that, but yeah, it’s a lot of different emotions. Definitely, kind of a roller coaster a little bit.”
The new Dodgers rotation is being talked about in eye-popping terms. Jon Heyman described it as among the “best ever,” and pointed to a group that now features Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto at the top.
“[Shohei] Ohtani is the greatest player ever,” he added. “[Blake] Snell is a top-10 pitcher and [Tyler] Glasnow a top-25 pitcher. All-Star [Justin] Wrobleski and big-armed [Emmet] Sheehan provide depth."
For the Yankees, the Skubal miss doesn’t leave them scrambling for starting pitching. That’s still their strength, with Cam Schlittler, Max Fried and Gerrit Cole leading the way and Carlos Rodon due back soon.
But the deadline still puts the spotlight on Brian Cashman. The Yankees now need help in other places: a right-handed hitting catcher, a power bullpen arm and maybe another outfield bat.
Their offense has been in rough shape for a while. Since Aaron Judge went out with a rib injury on May 31, the Yankees have had one of the worst attacks in baseball, sitting last in the majors with a .222 batting average and near the bottom in wRC+ and runs scored.
They’re also coming off a 5-2 loss to the Cubs on Saturday and sit 3 1/2 games behind the Rays in the AL East. Gerrit Cole gets the ball Sunday afternoon as the Yankees try to win the series.
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For Brian Cashman, the hard part is not identifying the fit. It is figuring out how much prospect capital and salary relief it would take to make the Mets engage, especially with New York expected to want more than one player in return. ESPN has already put Dax Kilby into the mix as a possible piece, which is enough to show how quickly this could get expensive if the Yankees decide to push beyond just kicking the tires. [Read more 🡒]