Tarik Skubal is a Dodger. This was always the most likely outcome at this year’s trade deadline. The rich got richer, while the rest of the field will have to find ways to keep up after watching the crown jewel of the market head to MLB’s best team.
In the end, it didn’t take a whole lot for the Dodgers to secure Skubal’s services. The trade package consisted of outfield prospect Zyhir Hope and pitching prospects River Ryan and Braden Smith. When examining the deal, it’s hard to imagine other clubs weren’t able to put forth equally competitive or even better offers to the Tigers. Los Angeles offloaded its Nos. 5, 7 and 17 prospects in the deal. Of course, the Dodgers have a loaded farm system, in addition to one of the most star-studded rosters ever assembled. Those players likely would’ve ranked higher in other farm systems, and the impact of trading those highly rated talents would have been more detrimental to smaller-market teams than it will be for L.A.
