As much as the Los Angeles Dodgers made waves at the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla., with signing free agent reliever Edwin Díaz, there’s still more trade news involving the ballclub.
Yes, Dodgers fans, those Tarik Skubal-to-Los Angeles trade rumors are not dying at all.
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On Wednesday, Dodgers Nation put forth a potential trade situation out on X. A potential trade? The Tigers would offer Skubal and outfielder Wenceel Perez. In return, the Dodgers would send Detroit starting pitchers Emmet Sheehan and Patrick Copen, outfielders Zyhir Hope and James Tibbs III, and infielder Alex Freeland.
Now, the post on X asks Dodgers fans if this trade could happen. It’s a decent question to ask and the people involved might make sense.
Skubal is set to become a free agent after the 2026 MLB season and probably would be looking for a contract in the neighborhood of $300 million. Who has that type of money? Well, the Dodgers seem to have a never-ending bank vault of cash.
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The Skubal talk will not die down. This is something that Dodgers fans and MLB fans and followers will be watching now and toward Spring Training. By the way, as of Dec. 11, Spring Training is just 70 days away.
In other Dodgers news on Thursday, manager Dave Roberts made it clear that Shohei Ohtani will primarily pitch. Roberts made his comments while at the Winter Meetings this week.
“The thought is to have Shohei being used as a regular starter, but it’s not going to be a regular five-man rotation,” Roberts said. “I don’t want to go down the six-man rotation road, but I do feel that giving him six, seven, eight days off to kind of allow him to continue to stay rested and build up, I think that’s in our process.”
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Ohtani showed he could not only pitch but hit in the 2025 World Series. He’s earned another Most Valuable Player award for last season. His efforts while with the Dodgers have won him even more fans to follow his exploits on and off the field.
So, it’s going to be Ohtani on the mound a lot at Dodger Stadium in 2026.
Also on Thursday, there was some clarification on Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki pitching for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic.
A report from Dodgers Roundtable indicated that Yamamoto was going to pitch for Team Japan while Sasaki will not do so.
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It will be interesting to see just how much Yamamoto pitches for Team Japan. Roberts probably doesn’t want to see one of his starting pitchers throw a ton of innings. The Dodgers might have a say in just how much he does throw.
According to Yahoo News Topics, “Dodgers President Andrew Friedman reportedly met with Team Japan’s manager Hirokazu Ibata and expects to communicate throughout the tournament.”
That should set any stipulations on Yamamoto’s use quite clearly.
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