Recently, the Los Angeles Dodgers made headlines by signing reliever Edwin Diaz to a lucrative contract, prying him away from the New York Mets in the process. For the second straight offseason, the Dodgers have now gotten demonstrably better despite winning a World Series championship in the prior fall.
Now, rumors are swirling that the team could be looking for other pitchers on the trade market, including a recent report from David Pingalore of KTLA that the Dodgers are interested in Tigers star Tarik Skubal.
“UPDATE I’m hearing the Skubal deal is essentially in place — the pieces are agreed to, the framework is done. What’s holding it up now is the long-term extension and ownership approval in Detroit. The @tigers won’t green-light it without the owner’s sign-off, and the @dodgers won’t ship out that kind of haul without a long-term commitment from Skubal. That’s the final hurdle,” reported Pingalore on X, formerly Twitter.
It should be noted that Pingalore has swung and missed on big trade news before, claiming that the Los Angeles Lakers were in talks to trade LeBron James during the 2023-24 season, which of course did not end up happening.
However, if he does turn out to be right about the Skubal trade, it would certainly be a big boost for a Dodgers team that already has far and away the best pitching rotation in baseball, but dealt with injuries in that department in a major way throughout last season, before getting mostly healthy just in time for the playoffs.
Blake Snell was on fire throughout most of the playoffs before tapering off significantly during the World Series vs the Toronto Blue Jays.
In any case, the Dodgers' 2026 season is set to begin with spring training in February. It remains to be seen if Skubal will be a member of the team at that point in time.
