Dodgers Land Skubal; Friedman Disputes Ruining Baseball
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- Andrew Friedman told Dodgers manager Dave Roberts the Skubal deal was essentially done just moments before Saturday's 6:10 p.m. PT first pitch, with the club sending outfielder Zyhir Hope and pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith to Detroit.
- Tarik Skubal will make his Dodgers debut Tuesday at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs, taking the rotation spot of Eric Lauer, who is moving to the bullpen and is widely expected to be traded before Monday's 3 p.m. PT deadline.
- Rival scouts, executives and players privately panned the Tigers' return, while fans on social media tied the acquisition to MLB's broader salary-cap debate; Friedman said he "passionately disagrees" with the narrative that the Dodgers are ruining baseball.
- Tigers president Scott Harris asked about consensus top-25 prospect Josue DePaula but was rebuffed, with the Dodgers ultimately keeping DePaula, Mike Sirota and Eduardo Quintero along with young starters Emmet Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski and Roki Sasaki.
- From 2024 to 2025, Skubal went 31-10 with a 2.30 ERA and 469 strikeouts in 387⅓ innings, posting a 12.6 FanGraphs WAR that led all major league pitchers, and a 2.79 ERA in 16 starts this season before returning from a NanoScope procedure on his left elbow.
- Friedman said Skubal was the only player the Dodgers were chasing at this deadline, telling Roberts: "It's special, and we're not going to be flippant about this moment in time."
Why it matters: By adding the reigning AL Cy Young winner to a rotation already tied with Milwaukee for the best ERA in baseball — and with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow nearing returns — the Dodgers have shifted the 2025 championship landscape while deepening the league-wide resentment over their spending power, a tension now directly tied to MLB's salary-cap push.
