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Bill Plaschke of the LA Times is making the big swing: the Dodgers need to go get Tarik Skubal. In his latest column, Plaschke argues that the reigning dynasty can’t afford to sit pat at the trade deadline — not with the health concerns that have dogged this roster. His framing is blunt: everyone will say the Dodgers are ruining baseball by adding another ace, but the alternative — watching the whole thing fall apart because of “loose bodies or a needle stuck in a left knee” — would be worse.

Skubal is the obvious top-of-the-market arm. The left-hander won the American League Cy Young Award in 2024 with the Tigers, posting a 2.39 ERA across 192 innings with 228 strikeouts, establishing himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball. He followed that up by continuing to dominate, and at 29, he’s in the prime of his career. Detroit has been in a difficult spot — they got a taste of the postseason in 2024 but have struggled to build sustained contention around their ace. That makes Skubal the kind of player who becomes available when a front office decides to cash in for a prospect haul rather than risk losing him for less later. He throws a devastating fastball-changeup combination, and his ability to miss bats at an elite rate while pitching deep into games is exactly what a contending rotation needs in October.

The reference to the left knee almost certainly points to Shohei Ohtani, who has dealt with knee issues that kept him out of the All-Star Game this week. The “loose bodies” language suggests broader injury concerns across the pitching staff — a familiar refrain for a Dodgers organization that has cycled through arms at an exhausting rate over the past several seasons. When you’re built to win championships, depth isn’t a luxury. It’s the whole foundation.

Plaschke’s argument isn’t subtle, and I don’t think it’s wrong. The Dodgers have the prospect capital and the financial muscle to make a deal like this happen. The question has never been whether they *can* — it’s whether Andrew Friedman and the front office believe the cost is worth it when they already have a loaded roster. But that’s the kind of thinking that gets you bounced in October by a team that went and got the guy you talked yourself out of pursuing.

I want to be clear: this is a columnist making an argument, not a report that the Dodgers are actively pursuing Skubal. There’s no sourced indication from the front office or from Tigers beat reporters that talks are underway. But Plaschke is plugged in enough that when he goes this hard on a specific target, it’s at least a reflection of the conversation happening around the team. The trade deadline is approaching, and if the Dodgers are serious about protecting this window — and they should be — Skubal is the kind of difference-maker who changes a rotation from very good to historically stacked. We’ve seen what happens when this team has enough arms. The goal is to make sure that’s still the case come October.

Source(s): Bill Plaschke (LA Times) | First reported: July 16, 2026 2:08 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers