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The Dodgers-Tigers trade talks around Tarik Skubal now have a specific name attached on our side: Emmet Sheehan. Per Ken Rosenthal at the New York Post, Sheehan has been tied to the Skubal trade discussions as a potential piece heading to Detroit. We already knew the Dodgers had emerged as a natural fit for Skubal — now we’re getting a clearer picture of what a deal might actually look like.

Sheehan being dangled here makes a certain kind of sense, even if it stings a little. The right-hander came up as one of the more exciting young arms in our system, flashing a big fastball and a wipeout slider that had evaluators genuinely excited. But his 2026 has been uneven at best. His most recent outing against the Phillies was rough — the kind of start that overshadowed Mookie Betts‘ two-homer night and left a lot of us frustrated. The Dodgers have already committed to keeping him in the rotation despite the struggles, but if Detroit sees upside they can unlock with a change of scenery and development approach, he becomes a logical trade chip. He’s young, controllable, and has the raw stuff to be a mid-rotation starter. That’s exactly the profile a rebuilding team like the Tigers would want in return for an ace.

Skubal, meanwhile, is the kind of arm you go get when you’re trying to win a World Series. The left-hander won the American League Cy Young Award in 2024 and has continued to pitch like one of the best starters in baseball. His combination of swing-and-miss stuff and command is elite — he’s not just racking up strikeouts, he’s pitching deep into games and limiting damage. For a Dodgers rotation that has leaned heavily on Yoshinobu Sasaki and dealt with health questions surrounding Shohei Ohtani‘s return to the mound, adding Skubal would be a massive upgrade. He’s the kind of front-line starter who changes a postseason rotation entirely.

I’ll say this plainly: if Sheehan is the primary major-league piece it takes to land Skubal, the Dodgers should do it. Sheehan has potential, but Skubal is a proven ace in his prime. The calculus isn’t complicated. The real question is what else Detroit wants on top of Sheehan — prospect capital, additional young pitching, maybe a positional piece. The Tigers hold enormous leverage here because Skubal is under contract and every contender in baseball would love to have him. The Dodgers’ advantage is that they have the depth and financial muscle to put together a package that makes sense for both sides.

This is the kind of deadline rumor that actually has substance behind it. We’re not talking about vague “interest” anymore — a specific player on our roster is being connected to a specific deal. That’s a meaningful escalation, and it tells me the front office is serious about making a move (and this one bears watching closely as we get closer to the deadline). Whether Sheehan ultimately ends up in a Tigers uniform remains to be seen, but the fact that his name is out there in this context tells us the Dodgers are willing to pay a real price to upgrade the rotation for October.

Source(s): Ken Rosenthal (New York Post) | First reported: July 22, 2026 9:02 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers