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USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, per ClutchPoints, said he wouldn’t be surprised if Tarik Skubal ended up with the Dodgers — a scenario he himself described as a nightmare for the rest of baseball. No trade is imminent or confirmed. This is pure speculation from a veteran national reporter, but it’s the kind of speculation that tends to get louder as we approach the trade deadline.

Skubal has established himself as one of the best left-handed pitchers in the American League. The 2024 AL Cy Young Award winner broke out with the Tigers and has been Detroit’s undisputed ace, posting elite strikeout numbers and consistently pitching deep into games. He’s the kind of front-line starter who changes the complexion of a pitching staff — a true No. 1 who can anchor a rotation in October. Detroit has been in a long rebuild, and while they’ve made strides, the question of whether they’d move their franchise arm before he hits free agency is one that gets revisited every trade season. Skubal is under team control, which makes him both incredibly valuable and incredibly expensive in terms of prospect capital.

From the Dodgers’ perspective, the rotation already features Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, and Blake Snell, with Gavin Wrobleski emerging as a legitimate contributor. Adding Skubal to that mix would be, frankly, absurd. It would give us arguably the deepest and most talented pitching staff ever assembled — and that’s not hyperbole, that’s just math. The Dodgers have shown repeatedly under Andrew Friedman that they’re willing to be aggressive when the right opportunity presents itself, and they have the farm system depth and financial muscle to make a play like this if Detroit opens the door.

I’ll say this plainly: the odds of this actually happening are long. Detroit would have to decide they’re sellers, and the asking price for a pitcher of Skubal’s caliber would be astronomical — we’re talking multiple top-tier prospects, the kind of package that thins out a farm system for years. The Dodgers have been willing to pay that price before (see: the Mookie Betts trade), but it’s not something you do casually. And the Tigers may simply decide they’re not trading him at all, which would be the smart move if they believe they’re close to contending.

Still, the fact that a reporter of Nightengale’s stature is floating this publicly tells you something about how the league views our front office. The Dodgers are the team everyone expects to make the big move — and sometimes that expectation becomes reality. This is one to file away and monitor as we get deeper into July. If Detroit starts listening on Skubal, you can bet the Dodgers’ phone will be ringing (and this one bears watching).

Source(s): Bob Nightengale (ClutchPoints) | First reported: July 12, 2026 5:10 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers