MLB trade deadline rumors: biggest questions ahead
Bob Nightengale breaks down the biggest trade deadline questions as contenders and sellers weigh their next moves.
Tarik Skubal, winner of the past two American League Cy Young Awards and one of the finest pitchers in the rich history of the Detroit Tigers, is being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, a baseball official familiar with the deal confirmed to USA TODAY Sports, ending an epic tenure in the Motor City while giving a significant boost to the Dodgers’ World Series three-peat chances.
The baseball official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deal is not yet official.
Going to Detroit are outfielder Zyhir Hope and right-handed pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith.
And now, Major League Baseball’s super team has an otherworldly rotation: Skubal will join forces with 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, All-Star lefty Justin Wrobleski and, oh, if he’s up to it, Shohei Ohtani.
Skubal, 29, will become a free agent after this season and is expected to command a record-setting salary for a pitcher, an asking price the Tigers likely would not be willing to meet. He’s already set a record for an arbitration-eligible pitcher with a $32 million salary this season, and now the Dodgers will be responsible for the last $9 million for the remainder of the season.
But oh, what a potential payoff: After missing 45 days due to elbow surgery, Skubal has roared back to top form, posting a 1.95 ERA and 50 strikeouts to six walks over a half-dozen starts. It’s a level of efficiency approaching his past two seasons, when Skubal posted a 2.30 ERA over 62 starts, struck out 10.9 batters per nine innings and won a pair of Cy Youngs, the latter in unanimous fashion.
The Dodgers now have an excellent shot at retaining Skubal, though they know he could just be a rental. Yet he also comes with a proven postseason record, leading the Tigers to an improbable 2024 stretch drive that resulted in a wild-card berth and upset of the Houston Astros in the wild card series. Skubal tossed six shutout innings to beat the Astros, and has a 2.04 ERA – with 56 strikeouts in 39⅔ innings – the past two postseasons.
For the Tigers, an all-in season has tacitly ended with the trade of Skubal. They signed left-hander Framber Valdez during the offseason, knowing he’d be a more affordable long-term option than Skubal. Yet for 2026, the Tigers would have both of them.
Those dreams were dashed when Skubal required surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow. Though an innovative surgical technique reduced his time on the sidelines, the Tigers lost 16 of 18 games during a grim stretch of May, creating a situation that manager A.J. Hinch termed “playing Game 7 every night” in an effort to get back in the race.
And for a minute, they responded, winning 15 of 20 games from June 29 to July 24, the last game in that stretch a dominant Skubal start against Kansas City.
That brought them within five games of the AL Central lead and within 2½ games of a wild-card spot with eight games remaining before the trade deadline.
But they dropped the final two games of their series against the last-place Royals and then two of three to Baltimore, the last loss including a blown 7-0 lead, almost all of it coming after Skubal handed a 7-1 lead to the bullpen.