If the Detroit Tigers decide to trade two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Katie Woo feel it’s unlikely the move would involve the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers are “unlikely” to offer free agent outfielder Kyle Tucker a six-year deal and are “even less likely” to acquire Skubal, Rosenthal and Woo wrote Wednesday.
Rosenthal and Woo noted that the Dodgers can’t be ruled out of another big offseason move, however, after putting together a deal for former New York Mets closer Edwin DÃaz “over the course of a few days.”
“As the DÃaz deal demonstrated anew, nothing could be ruled out when the Dodgers are involved,” Rosenthal and Woo wrote.
Skubal led the AL with a 2.21 ERA and MLB with a .891 WHIP in 31 starts and 195.1 innings pitched last season. He is heading into his final season under club control, at which point Spotrac projects he could be seeking an extension in the range of eight years and $300 million.
The Tigers ace is represented by Scott Boras, whose clients frequently test free agency.
That, combined with an October report from the New York Post’s Jon Heyman that Skubal and the Tigers were $250 million apart in contract negotiations, has raised questions about whether the ace will be signing elsewhere for the 2027 season.
Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris was asked about the possibility of moving Skubal during Winter Meetings this week in Orlando.
Harris said he wouldn’t “speculate” about trades for current players, but that in general he didn’t “believe in untouchables at any level, anyone in our organization.”
“It’s not a commentary on Tarik specifically, sort of a blanket team-building approach,” Harris said, per MLB.com’s Jason Beck. “I can’t do my job without listening. I can’t do my job without exploring anything that may or may not have legs.
“Some are going to be very likely moves and some are going to be extremely unlikely, but you can’t actually fully vet those opportunities unless you are willing to listen.”
Harris also said, however, that the Tigers were “pretty focused” on improving in 2026.
“If there’s an opportunity for us to get better in ’26, we’re going to take it,” Harris said.
The Tigers’ championship hopes ended last season in the ALDS, when Detroit was eliminated following a winner-takes-all Game 5 loss to the Seattle Mariners.
Keeping Skubal would give the Tigers their best shot at getting past that point in 2026.
Should the club fall short of its postseason hopes, however, losing Skubal for nothing could be a major blow for the franchise’s future giving the return Detroit could hope to get for one of the best pitchers in MLB.
One NL executive previously told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand the “baseline” for a Skubal return would be what the Milwaukee Brewers got for dealing Corbin Burnes in 2024. Burnes brought in a young MLB player in DL Hall, a top prospect in Joey Ortiz and the No. 34 pick of the 2024 MLB draft.
The Dodgers, who have one of the deepest farm systems in MLB, could potentially find the prospects to make the Tigers a tempting offer.
The question may be whether the organization is prepared to thin that depth in order to add just a single season of Skubal to an already-stacked rotation. The Dodgers are heading into the 2025 season with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow, and they’re expected to be joined next season by reliever-turned-starter Roki Sasaki.
Should the Dodgers ultimately manage to add Skubal to that lineup, the two-time defending World Series champions would likely head into 2026 season with the best rotation in baseball.