The Dodgers just did what the Dodgers do: they went and got the best player on the trade market.
Tarik Skubal is the latest star to land in Los Angeles, joining a run of major additions over the past 32 months that already includes Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Edwin Diaz and Kyle Tucker. It’s the kind of haul that makes people immediately point to the sport’s economic imbalance.
But this one is about more than payroll. It is also a reminder of how dangerous the Dodgers have become at building and using talent.
The Tigers came away with what they could from the 10 starts Skubal had left before he reaches free agency, where he is expected to land a record-setting deal, likely with the Dodgers on a short-term, high AAV contract. Detroit shopped him throughout the league and decided Los Angeles had the best offer, even though the package barely makes a dent in the prospect stockpile the Dodgers are carrying.
Los Angeles sent out two former 11th-round picks acquired in low-level deals and the 95th pick in its 2023 draft, and turned that into a two-time AL Cy Young Award winner. That’s the real story here: nobody does a better job of finding talent late in the draft or in other organizations. Andrew Friedman’s group has had its misses - including early trades of Oneil Cruz and Yordan Alvarez - but for years now the Dodgers have paired financial muscle with sharp prospect management.
That point goes back to the way Friedman sold Ohtani on the organization when Ohtani was a free agent. Ohtani wanted a team that would win consistently, and Friedman explained why the Dodgers’ player pipeline mattered so much.
“The system is designed for us to be at the bottom in terms of farm system rankings,” Friedman told him. “Picking at the end of the draft ...
Having less amount of international money ... Always being competitive and so therefore not really being able to trade off players as they’re nearing free agency ...
And yet, we're in the top three, top five, every year.”
Friedman also talked to Ohtani about “cohesiveness and collaboration” and “the stability and the continuity of our group,” ideas that speak as much to the development machine as they do to money.
Now the defending standard-bearer in the sport has another weapon. A postseason rotation with Skubal, Ohtani, Snell and Yamamoto is a terrifying thought, and the Dodgers still have Glasnow, Emmet Sheehan and Justin Wrobleski as depth starters or bullpen pieces.
There are fair questions if you want to nit-pick. The Tigers went 3-3 in the postseason with Skubal on the mound, and he was 0-2 in elimination games.
His career ERA after the sixth inning sits at 4.60, and since reaching the majors in 2020 he has thrown 100 pitches in a game only 14 times, fewer than Dean Kremer, Andrew Heaney, Chris Flexen and Taj Bradley over that same span. The Dodgers know all of that.
They will not be asking him to throw eight innings. Six will do.
This trade was driven more by prospect capital than by money, even if money is never far from the Dodgers’ success. They came close to getting knocked out in both of the last two postseasons, with the Padres letting them off the hook in the 2024 NLDS and the Blue Jays doing the same in Game 7 of the 2025 World Series.
But look at the pitchers they used in that Game 7: Ohtani, Glasnow, Snell and Yamamoto. Those four arms cost $1.277 billion.
Now Skubal is part of the group, too. The Dodgers are older in some places, but they are taking the best version of their modern dynasty into the playoffs.
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Cardinals Just Made A Tough Call On A Fan Favorite Outfielder
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In return, St. Louis added pitching depth, getting right-hander Daniel Eagen and left-handed reliever Sando Santana as part of a package that also includes a third player not yet reported. It is the kind of deal that can look sensible on paper for a team trying to balance present needs with future value, but the final shape of the return still has one more piece to come into focus. [Read more 🡒]