The Dodgers, with Tarik Skubal now in the fold, become even more imposing, infuriating and inevitable

The Dodgers don’t care about your feelings.

Nor should they.

Baseball’s unapologetic behemoth got even more imposing, infuriating and inevitable late Saturday night. Tarik Skubal, he of the back-to-back AL Cy Young awards, is now a Los Angeles Dodger . The rich, once again, have gotten richer.

It’s a fascinating, anticlimactic conclusion to what had been one of the more debated deadline sweepstakes for quite some time . Skubal’s Detroit Tigers tossed fuel on the fire by failing to turn a disappointing season around. By the back end of last week, a trade appeared increasingly likely. And in the end, the game’s evil empire won the bidding for the game’s best hurler.

As one team employee put it to me last week: “If Andrew [Friedman] wants Skubal, he’ll get Skubal.” Turns out, Los Angeles’ top baseball exec did indeed want the sport’s most effective pitcher .

A great deal of virtual ink has been and will be spilled over Detroit’s seemingly underwhelming prospect return. Yes, it certainly feels like president of baseball operations Scott Harris could’ve gotten more for a game-changer such as Skubal. It’s quite difficult to label this a haul. River Ryan is almost 28 years old and rarely healthy. Evaluators don’t know what position Zyhir Hope will play or how his body will age. Brady Smith, despite interesting peripherals, just ran a 5.26 ERA in low-A. None of that trio is a sure thing.

Modern baseball organizations, however, look at things through a value-based lens. Giving up three promising players with so much team control, volatility aside, for two months of anybody would make an analytical model shutter. The math says the Dodgers overpaid. Common sense says somebody else should have paid more.

Milwaukee and Tampa Bay certainly could have but were reportedly unwilling to include their best prospects in the deal. The Rays, for instance, likely refused to part with outfielder Theo Gillen or catcher Caden Bodine. Milwaukee surely balked at giving up infielders Jesús Made or Luis Peña. Perhaps time proves that conservatism prudent, but right now, the Brewers’ and Rays’ approach looks downright passive.

This is also where Los Angeles’ financial strength comes into play. For Milwaukee and Tampa Bay, those endearing small-market jokers moving on the margins, the players that might have gotten a deal done are too crucial to the overall operation for them to part with. The Dodgers, on the other hand, had a bigger appetite to take the same sized punch. The players they gave up simply mean less to them because of their ability to backfill. They could absorb more, and so they did.

For a moment, though, let’s forget the Tigers and the players they now have. Because this deal is all about the Dodgers.

No team in sports over the past few years has inspired such frustration and fervor as these Dodgers, whose financial and on-field dominance has earned the ire of 29 other fan bases. The acquisition of Skubal, a player any of those clubs could have had for a worthy return, will only intensify the fury. If the Dodgers weren’t already World Series favorites, they certainly are now.

Skubal should start Game 1 of any playoff series. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, whose heroics defined last year’s postseason, would take Game 2. Depending on how their returns from injury play out, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell and/or Tyler Glasnow are in line for Games 3 and 4. All-Star Justin Wrobleski looks to be on the outside looking in. The same is true for Roki Sasaki, who, despite marked improvements over the past few weeks, should slot back into the bullpen role he filled with aplomb last October.

The randomness of postseason baseball could very well topple the Dodgers from their perch, even with Skubal in the fold. Wilder things have happened in this topsy-turvy game, and anything can happen in a short series — a long series, too. Milwaukee’s powerless offense could experience a longball surge. Atlanta’s well-trodden vets could get hot for a week. Philadelphia’s impressive starting staff could shut down L.A.’s lineup. Who knows, maybe the Cubs ride Wrigley magic to a historic upset. Maybe you win the lottery. Maybe the moon explodes.

One other layer to consider: Los Angeles could act quickly to try to extend Skubal before the end of the season.

Remember, the current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire in December. A messy labor war between the league and union is hurtling down the pike. A lengthy work stoppage is expected. The economic system that emerges from that mess might not involve a salary cap, but it also might. Skubal should get a Brinks truck on the open market regardless, but there’s a chance that a deal from Los Angeles under the current system proves more lucrative than the alternative. It’s unclear as of now how preexisting contracts would be handled under a new structure, but Los Angeles almost certainly could spend more on Skubal today than in a few months' time.

Of course, that’s a tomorrow problem, a flashpoint for our future selves. The here and now involves Skubal in Dodger blue. That alone won’t determine the outcome of this baseball season. But it feels like it could. For many, that’s enough to feel overwhelmed with despondence.

The Dodgers and their fans? They shouldn’t care one bit.

Before Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, Friedman fielded questions from the media in a news conference conducted somewhere beneath Dodger Stadium. During that session, he made a bold, pointed statement that he wanted the next few years of Dodgers baseball to be remembered as a “Golden Era.”

Los Angeles won that World Series. They won the next one, too. And on Saturday, Friedman did his part to ensure the Dodgers have a roster built for a three-peat.

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Yahoo Sports. Open at source →