The latest Tarik Skubal buzz only made the Phillies’ place in this whole mess look more complicated.
What started as another sluggish Angels-Brewers night on the West Coast quickly turned into a live reaction to the rumor that sent baseball fans spinning: Skubal to the Dodgers, with the return centered around one top prospect, a 28-year-old starting pitcher, and a lottery-ticket piece. For Phillies fans who had just started to feel a little better about their club’s chances of landing the biggest name on the trade market, the news landed like a gut punch.
And in real time, Angels broadcaster Wayne Randazzo said out loud what a lot of people were thinking.
"Why couldn't a team like the Brewers or the Braves or whoever ... step in and keep the Dodgers -- it's an open market. Anybody can go and get Skubal. This is not about money," Randazzo fumed, keeping his anger barely disguised.
He kept going from there, with color commentator and former pitcher Mark Gubicza alongside him as Randazzo vented about how this could happen in the first place.
"How does this happen?... It feels like that's a deal other teams could have made." ⚾️🎙️ #MLB pic.twitter.com/UIAKdz7NLB
- Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 2, 2026
The frustration makes sense. The Dodgers’ money and TV setup put them in a different lane than most of the league, but this particular package did not look untouchable.
A number of teams could have topped it without much trouble, which is what makes the whole thing so maddening. Instead, nobody seems to have forced the issue.
That’s where the Phillies enter the picture. They’re part of the group that probably wanted somebody, anybody, to push back harder on Los Angeles. But the reporting around Philadelphia also suggests they may have done more than just wish.
Alex Coll, a producer at WIP, said the Phillies were in with an offer "along the lines of" Gage Wood, Justin Crawford and Jonathon Bowlan. That’s not presented as a definitive package, but it does point to a serious attempt.
If that was close to the actual framework, it would have meant Philadelphia was willing to put up an MLB-ready arm in Wood, a high-end name in Crawford, and Bowlan, a controllable reliever locked in through 2031. That’s not nothing. And if Detroit is trying to win now, with the Tigers sitting 2.5 games out of a Wild Card spot, it’s fair to ask whether that kind of return might have been more useful immediately than what was ultimately floated from Los Angeles.
Coll also noted that the Dodgers did not include Sheehan and that they committed not long ago, even though Skubal likely would have chosen them this winter.
Told the #Phillies had an offer for Tarik Skubal along the lines of Gage Wood, Justin Crawford & Jonathon Bowlan.
They thought they had a shot until LA decided to commit not long ago, didn’t include Sheehan. Paying a ton for a P that would’ve likely chosen them this winter https://t.co/I5y0Pxf8Nn
- Alex Coll (@Alexcoll_) August 2, 2026
The one name that makes the Phillies’ rumored package feel a little different is Crawford. His star power, as the source notes, is greater than any of the names in the Philadelphia group. But that only sharpens the larger question: what exactly did Detroit want, and how consistent was its ask?
Was River Ryan, near 28 and still scuffling through the PCL, really more appealing than an MLB-ready starter? Was the low-minors lottery piece worth more than Bowlan? Or did the market just get stretched and scrambled until the whole thing stopped making sense?
Randazzo’s on-air rant was pointed in the right direction, but the anger doesn’t really stop with Philadelphia. If anything, the bigger issue is how many contenders let this get to the point where the Dodgers could step in and take control.
For now, the Phillies can at least say they were in the conversation. Whether that should make anyone feel better is another story.
In Other News...
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For a club trying to keep one eye on the present and another on the future, Thomas is the kind of depth piece worth monitoring as the season unfolds. He has enough offensive upside to keep on the radar, and the fact that he remains under club control for years to come gives the Phillies some breathing room if he develops into more than a name in the system. [Read more 🡒]
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Luis Arraez moving to second base and Bryce Harper shifting to the outfield is the kind of shuffle that can look minor on paper and still change the feel of a team in a hurry. It also says plenty about how the Phillies are weighing fit versus outside help, especially with Varsho's offense having slipped from where it had been in prior seasons. [Read more 🡒]