Add The New York Post on Google By trading for Tarik Skubal, the Dodgers have gained a potential advantage in the upcoming sweepstakes for the two-time Cy Young Award winner, his agent told The California Post.
Skubal, 29, will be a free agent after this season.
“There’s nothing like getting to know how a franchise works and your role in it,” said Scott Boras, Skubal’s Newport Beach-based representative.
Major League Baseball’s impending lockout could affect how free agency plays out, but that won’t change Skubal’s status as the best player on the market. Skubal, who was acquired from the Detroit Tigers for three mid-level prospects, is scheduled to make his first start for the Dodgers on Tuesday against the Chicago Cubs.
“It’s great for both the Dodgers and for Tarik that they both get to know one another quite well and determine more about what the future may hold for them,” Boras said.
Boras said he was certain the Dodgers will like what they see in his client, whom he described as “of the most competitive people that I’ve been around in my career.”
“He’s a great teammate,” Boras said. “He really has a position-player mentality. He’s highly disciplined about his routine, what he does in between starts and what he does to stay in shape in the offseason. “
Skubal was noticeably emotional in the aftermath of his trade to the Dodgers – “He was a lifelong Tiger,” Boras said – but has become appreciative of the opportunity in front of him.
“It allows him to pursue a goal of his, which is to win a World Series,” Boras said.
The influential agent was relieved Skubal can chase that dream with the Dodgers, knowing their pitching depth will spare the impending free agent from being run into the ground.
Skubal will be paired at the top of the rotation with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the most valuable player of the World Series last year. Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani are working their way back from their respective injuries and are also expected to be available to pitch in October.
“You’re always concerned about overutilization when clubs acquire a talent that they know potentially could be there for a short period,” Boras said. “You’ve seen that happen before.”
Boras was also comforted by the presence of Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the Dodgers’ team physician. ElAttrache was the surgeon who used a new surgical device to remove a loose body from Skubal’s elbow in early May. Skubal was back pitching for the Tigers just five weeks after the procedure, which Boras nicknamed the “Skubal Scope.”
Skubal was able to resume throwing about a week after the operation, which kept his fastball velocity from diminishing.
“It was really just about getting back to the rhythm of pitching with his secondary stuff,” Boras said. “He’s really gotten back in his groove his last, three or so starts, where he’s got the full extension and rhythm.”
In his last three starts, Skubal is 2-0 with a 1.71 earned-run average.
This wasn’t the first time Boras had a high-profile client move to the Dodgers in the middle of the Dodgers in his walk year.
Before Max Scherzer flamed out in the postseason, he was 7-0 in 11 regular-season starts for the Dodgers in 2021. Scherzer parlayed that into a three-year, $130-million contract with the New York Mets.
A spectacular 2 ½-month stretch by Manny Ramirez in 2008 forced the then-cash-strapped Dodgers to re-sign him to a two-year, $45-million contract.
The Dodgers should provide Skubal with a similar platform.
“You get more of a vision of him in the postseason and down the stretch and what he can mean to a franchise,” Boras said. “You get to see that unfold in real time.”
The move has already increased Skubal’s value as a free agent. Because Skubal was traded in the middle of the season, the Dodgers can’t make him a qualifying offer, which would cost any other team that signs him a draft pick, as well as money that could be used to sign international amateurs.
In Skubal, the Dodgers are receiving a player whom Yamamoto called the “No. 1 pitcher” in baseball. Boras predicted that Skubal would provide more than on-field performance.
“He is a winning player and he’s yet to win it all,” Boras said. “I think that for a team that has won, it’s going to bring a strong spirit [to have] someone who’s yet to achieve what many of them have achieved. I think that motivates a lot of players to be around that kind of player.”
