RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 6 sourcesDETROIT, MI - JULY 29: Tarik Skubal #29 of the Detroit Tigers pitches against the Baltimore Orioles during the second inning at Comerica Park on July 29, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The thing that might have happened actually happened. Tarik Skubal is now a Dodger . Even strictly in the context of big-time acquisitions both via trade and free agency, this one easily stands out in that, with Paul Skenes looking mortal in 2026, there is no one quite like Skubal on a baseball mound these days. The Dodgers, one of the best teams in the last however many years, have managed to add the unequivocally top starting pitcher in the entire sport, and the value of such is impossible to overstate.
Without sticking to the current available names — looking at a projected best available group — the Dodgers’ rotation certainly was not hurting for star power, with the likes of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Shohei Ohtani, with question marks surrounding the latter. And yet, Skubal breezes through to the front of the pack in a rather seamless fashion. How does he do it?
Over the past four seasons, Skubal has known no fluctuations, at least none in a meaningful enough way to be pointed out; the only thing that has kept him from winning the Cy Young in all of those years has been health. In fact, health is the big question for an arm that might follow in the footsteps of Max Scherzer with the Dodgers in 2021, although in a different team context.
The numbers have been well-documented, though, and to discuss his greatness can be a bit like raining on a wet soil. Instead, let’s talk about what separates Skubal from other elite Dodger arms—not in terms of production level, but approach.
Yamamoto, for instance, has started doing something that is a staple of Skubal’s arsenal for a significantly longer period—the former Tigers’ ace with pretty distinct attack plans against lefties and righties relies primarily on a sinker against batters of the same handedness. In each of the past three seasons, the sinker has been Skubal’s most-used pitch versus left-handed hitters, fluctuating anywhere from 42.3 percent in 2025 to 55.8 percent the season prior. This successful approach has had to navigate a surprisingly high batting average on the sinker this season, but nothing he can’t work around, limiting all power to just a .385 slugging percentage on the pitch.
In general, sinkers haven’t been prominent in the arsenal of any of the star pitchers the Dodgers have recently acquired, but with Glasnow and Yamamoto we’ve seen the team encourage them to use it more often. While the predictability of this can be discussed, it at least bears recognition. It’s not as if the previous form of Yamamoto or Glasnow called for such adjustments, and yet they’ve worked out nicely.
Moving on, swing-and-miss action is to a certain degree or another a core aspect of the production of these top arms. For such a talented team, though, the Dodgers starting staff lacks a deadly changeup, and even if it did not, no matter if it had some of the best changeup-throwing arms in the spot, there are none quite like Skubal.
One of the more easily defined tendencies with Skubal’s arsenal since he first came up to the bigs has been near-simultaneous increases and decreases in changeup and slider usage, respectively. This Cy Young-world-beating version we know of Skubal has had the changeup as its primary offspeed offering, and why would it not? Going back to the 2023 season, in each of the past four years, the Sw. St% on Skubal’s changeup has been in the 99th percentile or higher in each individual campaign. SwSt%, as in whiffs divided by total pitches.
The changeup is so dominant that in the past two years, Skubal has had no problem using it as one of the main complements to the sinker against left-handed batters right there next to the four-seamer.
Against right-handers or left-handers, Skubal’s changeup dominates all the same. Oh, and by the way, in the past two years since he started featuring this pitch more against left-handers, not a single one has left the yard, with just one going for an extra-base hit.
Between a sinker-led approach against left-handed hitters and a changeup that dominates at such a ridiculous level, the appeal of following Skubal closely can go beyond just his general ability to overmatch any batter. There is plenty that’s new in the way he goes about it for a team that’s no stranger to outstanding pitching.
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