Home Major League Baseball Dodgers Ruin Baseball Again (and Other Trades to Come)

Dodgers Ruin Baseball Again (and Other Trades to Come)

By
Rice Cube
-
148

I honestly should have gone to bed already, but a trade has happened involving the best pitcher on the block:

The Dodgers are acquiring two-time AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal from the Tigers for three prospects, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. Detroit is getting outfielder Zyhir Hope (L.A.’s No. 5 prospect and MLB’s No. 25), right-hander River Ryan (No. 7, MLB No. 68) and right-hander Brady Smith (Dodgers’ No. 17). The clubs have not confirmed the trade.

I only did the headline facetiously as any club probably could have beaten that package if they wanted to, and also generally MLB dot com doesn’t post something if it isn’t going to happen, and since this is a Passan bomb, it’s inevitably going to be announced. The Dodgers did what any team going for it should do, albeit they have a tougher stomach for absorbing salary and giving up prospects.

We do know that the Cubs have been transparent about the need for pitching, and while the farm system isn’t tops in the game, they should have had the pieces to match or beat the Dodgers if Jed wanted to. That they didn’t push in suggests they have an alternative plan (hopefully a good one). What’s more surprising is how Milwaukee didn’t match or beat this offer. But I’m sure we’ll have a more comprehensive postmortem on this and other trades at a more decent hour, possibly on the upcoming pod.

148 COMMENTS

  11. Rice Cube,

    I would change the luxury tax calculation such that teams can’t amortize deferred money over the full payment term and have to count it for the years the player will actually be playing baseball. I don’t have an issue with deferred money for cash flow, but teams shouldn’t be able to use it as a loophole as the Dodgers have done.

    Not sure if that’s coming out clearly, but if a player signs a $700MM contract for 10 years that pays out over 20, the luxury tax hit should be $700MM over 10 years.

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  19. lazily quoting Calcaterra

    This is bad for a bunch of reasons that, actually, have very little to do with the baseball that will take place on the field.

    It’s bad because, despite the fact that virtually any team in baseball could’ve put together a package like that – (a) two minor league pitchers, one who is already 27, both of whom have already had Tommy John surgery and have bad-looking stats; and (b) a hitter who, while a top-40 or 50 overall prospect has great power but a questionable hit tool that will be exploited once he’s in the majors – it will be treated by most fans and most of the press as if L.A. did something that only it could do. Someone could ask why the Rays or Brewers didn’t rent Skubal at that price despite an acute need, but few will, because all baseball news these days is viewed through Rob Manfred’s “our game sucks and everything is unfair because the Dodgers have all the money” glasses.

    It’s also bad because Detroit, despite having the ability and the means to sign Skubal never made an effort to do so. This is a team that not terribly long ago signed the top hitters and pitchers of the era to long-term deals and didn’t lose a dime over it, but now that the competitive father owner is dead and the inheriting money son is in charge they act like smol beans who must make due to with bread bag shoes instead of boots. And again, very few people question it because the “only the Dodgers can spend money and acquire good players” narrative is in concrete.

    I will grant that, yeah, in the short term, this deal will suck in the eyes of most people because no one wants to see the best team get better and no one besides Dodgers fans wants to see a three-peat champion. But we need to be clear about something: just because we don’t like that does not mean that the game is so unfair that we must trash, abandon, or forever alter it. This is not a deal that only the Dodgers could do. This is a deal most teams could do but chose not to, and that’s a far more damning comment on Major League Baseball in 2026 than anything the Los Angeles Dodgers are doing.

    Have a great day everyone.

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  21. berselius,

    I like all of this, but I would add to it this other layer of annoyance: if the offers of prospects from other teams were similar, why would the Tigers choose the Dodgers? Because that is what Skubal wanted? No way. Because the Dodgers winning another World Series bolsters public support of a salary cap? That theory I believe. And it sucks.

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  25. andcounting,

    My questions are 1) were the offers from other teams comparable? and 2) if other teams didn’t make comparable offers, is that because Skubal’s camp floated that his preference is to sign with the Dodgers in the offseason and the opportunity he buys another team this year isn’t worth the cost of acquisition?

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  27. andcounting:
    Nico is far and away the worst Cub at not challenging when he should. Cost them at least a run.

    You’d think they have some kind of SOP where anything close in a critical late game situation is worth a challenge.

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  29. Perkins,

    On question 1 I think we’ll get a pretty definitive answer from whatever deal they ultimately make for a starter. On the second part I have to wonder how any team (other than the Dodgers, I guess) would seriously consider prospective 2027 free agent signings in their trade deadline decisions right now. I would bet the Brewers aren’t looking too far past early November in their strategy at the moment.

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  35. I didn’t have my sights set too high and figured the cubs would target useful but non flashy guys but this barely qualifies

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  37. Rice Cube,

    Seems right to me. Southisene is a top 30 prospect in the system and has looked good so far. 13th at MLB. Bateman is 27th. Both hitting really well this year. Southisene is also quite good at D, from what I saw at Myrtle Beach.

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  40. Not sad to see Mahle go to Braves. I think he’s basically way past peak but seemed like the kind of guy Jed would target.

    Gaussman only some past peak. (dying laughing)

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  44. I wonder if the Cubs will issue 34 to Gausman. Feels like they’ve been keeping it out of circulation since Lester, and Wood before that.

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  49. Brooks Raley to Philadelphia. Kinda wanted him back for sentimental reasons as the last active player from the 2012-13 Cubs. Who’d have guessed he’d be the last man standing of that group when it had Rizzo, Castro, and Hector Rondon? Also the last active player to have played with Alfonso Soriano.

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  51. BVS,

    I feel like there’s a universe in which Starlin Castro is still playing ball and has 2500+ hits. If I had a nickel for every 2010s Cubs middle infielder whose career ended after committing domestic violence, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

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  55. Rice Cube:
    Perkins,

    I just feel like they could be not domestically violent but apparently that’s hard or something

    You’d certainly hope so. I just assume the majority of professional athletes are not very good people. Of the guys on the 2016 team, the only one I’m reasonably confident I’d get along with is Kyle Hendricks.

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  63. Hmm!

    Previously cromulent, probably a PTBNL/cash/prospect way down the charts deal given this season

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  71. This is fun

    Seems a bit wild but gets the Ks

    Also BN might be broken, site seems down

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  74. Wonder if the Zeferjahn deal was discussed as a larger deal including Detmers and that’s how we got the conflicting reports of a deal being done for Detmers.

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  80. Mo also probably wasn’t going to stick at catcher in the Cubs organization. Maybe not any organization. Too bad because I loved watching him swing the bat.

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  89. dmick89,

    Sounds like he made a final rehab start, so I’d expect soon. I also am not betting on a 2027 season (at least a full one), but I’m trying to maintain some optimism.

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  109. Still some (dying laughing) but a rough day to be Bert Taylor. Looking forward to the BN Pod postmortem of the shitshow (dying laughing)

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  130. Jed Hoyer with the stealth homage to Jim Hendry, mentioning that they’ve been trying to trade for Gausman since he was on the Orioles. His personal Brian Roberts

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