Dodgers Land Tarik Skubal From Tigers for Three Prospects, Two Days Before Trade Deadline

The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired reigning American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night, according to ESPN, which first reported the deal. The trade lands baseball's most coveted deadline chip on the sport's already-loaded defending champion.

Los Angeles is sending outfielder Zyhir Hope, ranked MLB's No. 25 prospect, along with right-handed pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith to Detroit, according to both ESPN and Sportsnet. No major-league players changed hands.

The deal came together during the Tigers' 8-6 win over the Athletics on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera, which reported that Skubal learned the news mid-game and was emotional afterward about leaving the only organization he's known since Detroit drafted him in 2018.

"I'm excited to be a Dodger," Skubal said, according to Al Jazeera. "I'm excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row. That's hard to do, so I'm so excited to be a part of that. But it's a lot of different emotions. Definitely kind of a roller-coaster a little bit."

The numbers behind the move

Skubal is 7-5 with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings this season, according to Sportsnet. For his career, he's 61-42 with a 3.04 ERA across seven seasons, all in Detroit, and he's 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six postseason starts.

He underwent a minimally invasive procedure on May 6 to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow and missed just over a month before returning June 13, according to Sportsnet. "The way the surgery went is exactly how it was supposed to go," Skubal said in July, per Sportsnet.

Skubal is making $32 million this season, a record arbitration salary after Detroit had offered $19 million, according to Sportsnet. He's set to hit free agency after the World Series in October and is expected to command a massive contract, according to both Sportsnet and Al Jazeera. Fox News noted the Dodgers won't be able to extend him a qualifying offer because the trade happened mid-season, meaning Los Angeles gets no draft-pick compensation if he walks this winter.

Why Detroit sold at 2.5 games out

The Tigers were 53-58 and 2.5 games back of the final AL wild-card spot at the time of the trade, according to the LA Times. That's a genuinely uncomfortable spot to trade away your ace. A team within shouting distance of the playoffs just gave up its best pitcher for the stretch run.

But Detroit's front office was staring down a near-certainty that Skubal walks in free agency for nothing in return. Sportsnet reported the Tigers had already spent big this offseason, giving Framber Valdez a three-year, $115 million deal and re-signing Gleyber Torres for $22 million, betting the roster around Skubal could contend. The team started 16 games under .500 before clawing back into wild-card contention through June and July.

Skubal himself said in July it was his preference to finish the season in Detroit and chase the championship that's eluded the franchise since 1984, according to Al Jazeera. He called leaving "very tough." His final start as a Tiger came Wednesday against Baltimore, when Detroit blew a 7-0 lead and lost 10-9 in 12 innings, even as Skubal recorded his 1,000th career strikeout in front of a crowd of 34,406, according to Fox News and Sportsnet.

A Dodgers roster that didn't need the help

Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman didn't dress up the logic. "There just aren't that many star-level players in the game," Friedman said earlier in the week, according to the LA Times. "Any time one is available, we're always going to participate in those conversations. We've shown to be very aggressive in the past."

The Dodgers already lead the majors with a 3.36 ERA from starting pitchers, according to Al Jazeera, and now add Skubal to a rotation that includes Shohei Ohtani, reigning World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, once both return from injury. The LA Times reported Snell has one more rehab start before activation and Glasnow is close to beginning his own rehab assignment.

Over the past eight months, the Dodgers have added the top free-agent reliever in Edwin Díaz, the top free-agent hitter in Kyle Tucker, and now the top trade chip on the market, all according to the LA Times, without giving up a single big leaguer to get it done.

Fox News framed the deal bluntly, calling out the "frustrating" reality that the Dodgers landed Skubal for a price most other contenders could have matched. That's a fair gripe about MLB's lack of a salary cap and the growing gap between big-market and small-market spending, even if it has nothing to do with rules being broken. The Dodgers didn't outbid anyone on prospects. They just have the top-heavy financial might to make even a straightforward, replaceable trade look inevitable.

The open question now is what Skubal does in free agency this winter, and whether the Dodgers, already carrying baseball's highest payroll, try to keep him as part of a rotation built to chase a third straight title.