Depending on whom you listen to, the MLB trade deadline could be a most calm and quiet affair, without much of significance changing hands. Or it could be a free-for-all, especially if one name in particular is put up for bidding: Tigers ace lefty Tarik Skubal. If that happens, make no mistake, the Dodgers trade machine will be in high gear, and L.A. will do what it can to get to the front of the line.
That’s according to SI.com’s Tom Verducci, who reports that while the Tigers are not quite shopping their All-Star yet, folks from the Dodgers and Orioles have reported their interest.
“Sources from the Dodgers and Orioles confirmed they are interested in putting together packages loaded with top prospects for Skubal,” Verducci wrote this week. “There is no indication yet whether Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris will move Skubal, though both Los Angeles and Baltimore have the rich prospect capital to make such a trade discussion interesting.”
The Orioles had the No. 1 rated farm system before the season, with the Dodgers No. 8, according to MLB.com. Baseball America also had the Orioles No. 1, with the Dodgers 10th.
Dodgers Trade Deadline More Urgent With Injuries
Of course, it helps that the free-spending Dodgers can be looser with their prospect packages than the Orioles. Both teams are in line for the postseason this year, and both have designs on making the World Series. The Dodgers committed nearly $1 billion to Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani in the offseason to help secure a World Series bid.
But the Dodgers have been hit with a spate of injuries, especially to the pitching staff, jeopardizing the team’s postseason outlook. A trade for Skubal would solidify a rotation where, as things stand, Gavin Stone and James Paxton are the only healthy known commodities.
Skubal is still under team control for the next two years, and given his numbers this season (7-3, league-best 2.41 ERA, 140 strikeouts in 116 innings), the Tigers are more than reluctant to trade him. He was projected by The Athletic to be worthy of an extension worth up to seven years and $115 million, though that was before his outstanding first-half performance this year.
One executive told Verducci, though, that the Tigers might do well to strike while the Skubal iron is hot.
“They’re not contending this year and probably not next year,” a rival talent evaluator said. “So now your window with Skubal is one year. One year? That’s why you see what you can get now where he affects three postseasons. After this [deadline], the price goes down.”
Tarik Skubal Bounced Back From Shoulder Surgery
Maybe, then, there is hope for Dodgers trade enthusiasts.
Entering the season, Skubal was a bit of a risky proposition. He has slowly established himself as a top-tier lefty starter of the last three seasons, but he did so under the cloud of injuries. In 2022, he was 7-8 with a 3.52 ERA in 21 starts when he went down with a torn flexor tendon that required surgery. It was his second major surgery—he’d already had Tommy John surgery when he was in college, which had been one reason he’d dropped to the ninth round in the 2018 MLB draft.
He last pitched on August 1 in 2022. After nearly a year of rehab, he returned to the big leagues on July 4 in 2023, and was outstanding down the stretch, going 7-3 with a 2.80 ERA and 102 strikeouts in 80.1 innings.
Skubal has not looked back since, which is why top contending teams like the Yankees, Dodgers and Orioles are pursing him at the MLB trade deadline. He spoke with The Athletic about the shoulder surgery and the perspective it offered him:
“It was more eye-opening than Tommy John was for me because I was throwing the ball well, and you think, ‘OK, I can keep doing this. I feel good.’ And then all of a sudden, my season is over, and it was very abrupt and I didn’t really understand what all happened. That’s what probably kickstarted looking out and trying to figure out what’s going on and how to manage my body and reinvest into it.”
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Dodgers ‘Loaded’ Trade Package Ready for Projected $115 Million Ace: Report