Add The California Post on Google The Los Angeles Dodgers are heading into the All-Star break with baseball’s best record, an 11.5-game lead in the National League West and the look of a team built to chase a third straight World Series title.
Naturally, the Dodgers reputation is proceeding them and they are being linked to the best pitcher who could possibly move at the trade deadline.
ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan said on Get Up that if Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal is traded, the Dodgers are the team that makes the most sense.
“If there is a team that’s gonna go get Tarik Skubal and has both the incentive and the ability to do so, it is the Los Angeles Dodgers,” Passan said. “And I know people don’t like hearing that.”
The idea of this team adding a two-time Cy Young winner is exactly the kind of deadline scenario that makes the rest of baseball groan and demand an ironclad salary cap.
But the Dodgers still have questions. Starting pitchers Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow are once again working their way back from lengthy injured-list stints. The rotation is still loaded with Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Justin Wrobleski, but the kind of October run they seek has a way of turning depth into a daily emergency.
Despite missing a few starts due to arthroscopic elbow surgery in early May, the Tigers left-hander has still been effective this season, posting a 3.09 ERA with 89 strikeouts, 11 walks and a 0.952 WHIP in 75 2/3 innings. For most pitchers, that would be a strong season. For Skubal, it qualifies as a relative step back only because of the high standard he has already set.
The complication is that Skubal apparently wants no part of the rumor mill.
According to USA Today, Skubal has told friends he “badly wants to stay in Detroit” for the rest of the season because he believes the Tigers have a legitimate shot at the World Series.
But without a no-trade clause, Skubal’s belief only matters if the Tigers believe it, too.
Do the Tigers see a flawed but dangerous team capable of climbing to the top of a weak AL Central? Or do they see an expiring superstar arm, a massive contract decision coming and a chance to turn him into a franchise-altering prospect haul?
If Detroit puts Skubal on the market, the Dodgers become impossible to ignore.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that rival executives worry Los Angeles may be underselling its interest, even as people around the Dodgers have suggested they are not desperate with Snell and Glasnow working their way back.
That may be true. The Dodgers do not need Skubal in the way most contenders would.
But that is also what makes the possibility so uncomfortable for everyone else.
Los Angeles can take the calmer path and play this deadline the way it did last year, without making a massive splash. Or it can use its resources, prospect depth and title-or-bust appetite to cement it’s chances at securing the rare three-peat.
The rest of baseball may want the Dodgers to stay away.
But if the Tigers decide they are sellers, neither one may get what they want.
