Detroit Tigers SP Tarik Skubal is inarguably the top pitching target on the trade block around the league. As Motor City Bengals’ Katrina Stebbins writes, though, there is a finite number of teams realistically in the mix for him.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and New York Mets are the only franchises with a chance of landing Skubal if the Tigers cut bait with a player who most certainly won’t return to the Motor City in 2027 free agency.
Stebbins believes the Mets’ Steve Cohen could be the most desperate to make a splash of the bunch, especially if there’s a chance to outspend the Dodgers’ Andrew Friedman in a highly-publicized bidding war.
“Word on the street is that the Tigers will be keeping Tarik Skubal this offseason, but there’s always a caveat: if the front office gets an offer they can’t refuse, they’ll have to consider it,” Stebbins wrote.
“There are only a handful of teams that have the kind of prospects to could get it done, and they’re basically the same teams expected to swarm to Skubal in free agency, if the Tigers let him get that far. The Dodgers, Red Sox, Phillies, and Mets all have the juice.
“The Dodgers’ gluttony knows no bounds, but their rotation is currently full and is arguably the best in baseball. The Mets gluttony also knows no bounds, and they’re perhaps the most desperate team in the game right now after spending $765 million on Juan Soto only to miss the postseason entirely.”
The Dodgers would be playing with their food if they were able to get the Mets to break the bank on a Skubal trade.
Los Angeles doesn’t need another starter, being more than well-armed by owning a rotation of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, and Roki Sasaki. If they can up the price for NYM, sure, it’d help the Tigers, but it’d help break up the Mets’ current asset base for future trades.
The Dodgers can continue winning, even if they don’t win the Skubal sweepstakes. And it can be at New York’s expense.
Win-win.
Andrew is a freelance journalist based in Auburn, Alabama, who currently serves as the site expert for Fly War Eagle and Glory Colorado. His work has been featured in The Miami Herald, Bleacher Report and Heavy Sports. Andrew graduated from Brooklyn College with a degree in print journalism in 2017 and has been a sports fan since 1993. He has covered the University of Alabama’s pro day and the American Century Championship.