-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred
- Dodgers land two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal in a trade with the Detroit Tigers, the bold move they needed to complete their quest for a World Series three-peat.
- The rest of baseball probably will hate the Dodgers for pulling off this trade, but who cares? Dodgers fans will be delighted and that’s all that matters.
- With Shohei Ohtani possibly in danger of not pitching in October, it was important for the Dodgers to add another ace to their starting rotation.
Tarik Skubal is a Dodger.
The five words every baseball soul outside of Los Angeles dreaded hearing.
The Dodgers are going to three-peat.
The six words that every baseball soul everywhere must now acknowledge.
It’s over. The chase for baseball’s best pitcher, the hunt by baseball’s best team, the pennant race, the World Series, all of it.
It’s over. The Dodgers just stole it all again, three months early but right on time, their third consecutive championship cemented when they traded for the Detroit Tigers’ Tarik Skubal, the two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner and quite simply the best pitcher in baseball.
The Dodgers swing a deal for Detroit Tigers ace left-hander Tarik Skubal ahead of the trade deadline, bolstering their hopes for a third straight World Series title.
Everybody wanted him. The Dodgers were the only team with enough assets to get him. Of course they were. They always are.
And in return, they surely will win a third consecutive championship against a withering and overmatched group of pretenders that could add Skubal only in their dreams.
He cost the Dodgers minor leaguers Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith. So? None of the three is considered a top-five Dodgers prospect in what appears to be a scandalously one-sided deal.
He could be a free agent this winter and may cost $400 million to retain. So? The Dodgers have that much in their couch cushions.
The Dodgers’ injury-scarred rotation needed a stud starting pitcher like Skubal and, as this column noted last month, there was no excuse for baseball’s wealthiest and smartest team not to grab him.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gives up just four hits over eight innings, but the Dodgers struggle to drive in runs despite 10 hits in a 3-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox.
So the Dodgers grabbed him. Of course they did. They are rushing full bore toward that three-peat and, to the delight of the most appreciative fans in baseball, nothing is going to get in their way.
“Everything that we do is in mind with the partnership that we have with our fans, the 50,000 people that come out here every day,” said Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, in a Sunday afternoon news conference, later adding, “And so for us, it’s about doing our part to try to back up our end as much as we can in partnership with them to hopefully have another parade.”
Friedman has won many trades in the dozen years he’s run the Dodgers, but this may be his greatest swindle yet. Think about it. He acquired the hottest pitcher on the market for three mostly unheralded prospects nearly two full days before the trade deadline.
Geez, Detroit, you think you could have taken more time to scour the market? And with the prospect-rich Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves in the mix, you think you could have done better than one good outfielder, one injury-prone 28-year-old pitcher and one anonymous dude going nowhere?
The Dodger player reaction was shock, disbelief then joy.
“They were fired up, obviously,” said Friedman.
Nobody was more excited than Friedman, who showed rare emotion when talking about his latest triumph.
“Watching Tarik Skubal pitch in the playoffs last year was must-see TV,” he said. “I was in awe watching the energy, the dominance he exhibited there, and I can’t wait to see it in Dodger blue.”
The rest of baseball will hate them for this. They don’t care. Critics will say this is yet another example of how they are ruining the game. They could give a rip.
A move like this — the insanely rich getting insanely richer — could be cited this winter as a reason for the game shutting down over a labor dispute. Not their problem.
With a sore Shohei Ohtani looking increasingly doubtful for a meaningful October on the mound, with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow still sidelined because of injuries, Skubal can slide into the No. 2 spot in a rotation that, if everyone gets healthy, could wind up being the best in baseball history.
Of course, in the immortal words of Kobe Bryant, the job is not finished.
There are still questions, even for a team that has all the answers.
Skubal is a tremendous postseason pitcher, with a 2.04 ERA in six starts, but will his surgically repaired left elbow survive through his third postseason?
After pushing 200 innings the last two seasons, he underwent a newfangled minimally invasive procedure on May 6 to remove a loose body from his elbow. Recovery time for a similar surgery performed the old-fashioned way is two to three months, but he was back on the mound in a game just a month later.
Will this new operation hold up? Time will tell, but the Dodgers will be holding their breath.
Shaikin: Dodgers traded just 3 minor leaguers for Tarik Skubal. Why couldn’t your team do that?
MLB fans like to complain the Dodgers are ruining baseball, but many other teams could have met the price the Dodgers paid to acquire Tarik Skubal.
After Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Skubal, the Dodgers have another potentially big question. What do they do about Ohtani?
He’s got a balky knee, and now a painful biceps, and the Dodgers have kept him off the mound for a moment, but what happens in October?
By acquiring Skubal, the Dodgers can afford to pull Ohtani out of the rotation altogether and allow him to focus on hitting, which has taken a bit of a hit with the pitching issues. But would he accept such a move, which might feel like a demotion? Ohtani always has put winning first, but he also began the season openly acknowledging his quest for a Cy Young Award. So there’s that.
The Dodgers still will need some good fortune to round out the rotation.
They say Snell and Glasnow are both on the verge of returning from what has essentially been season-long injuries. But, come October, they’ll both be 33, so believe only what you see.
Roki Sasaki has been tremendous since the All-Star break — that new glove has been a giant success — but he’s still never started a postseason game. And for all his surprise greatness this summer, Justin Wrobleski also has yet to start a postseason game.
It all could get interesting. But it shouldn’t be suspenseful.
Skubal solves all mysteries. Skubal ends all arguments. Skubal saves the summer.
The Dodgers are the most championship-driven and fan-devoted team in all of sports. They will do whatever it takes, however it takes, whenever it takes, to win.
Five words that unequivocally prove it.
Tarik Skubal is a Dodger.
