The Dodgers have the best record in baseball, the highest run differential in baseball, the biggest lead in baseball.
And a pitching staff that recently required seven arms to get through a six-run loss in a game started by Kyle Hurt.
The Dodgers have the best player in baseball, the best manager in baseball, the best lineup in baseball.
And a starting rotation containing two cornerstones who have shown up for a total of eight games.
You know where we’re headed with this, right?
C’mon Dodgers, would you look in the mirror and ignore the noise and make the trade already?
Go get Tarik Skubal.
Go get the two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner and cement your October. Go get the marvelous Detroit Tiger lefty and claim your three-peat.
Everyone will say you are ruining baseball, but you know what would really ruin baseball? If its reigning dynasty is wrecked by loose bodies or back spasms or a needle stuck in a left knee.
Everyone will say you don’t really need him, but unless you have some sort of time machine that can restore vitality to some of the veterans showing serious wear, you need him.
The 29-year-old Skubal is a pending free agent, so the Tigers have to trade him or lose him to a $400 million contract elsewhere. The Tigers could keep him for a possible pennant run, but Skubal is a pitcher, not a miracle worker, and his 44-52 team has to leapfrog six others to sneak into a wild-card spot.
He’s there for the taking and, more than any other team, the asset-rich Dodgers are in the best position to take him. They have the best minor leaguers. They have the best fringe major leaguers. Give the Tigers whatever anonymous talents they desire because, as Dodger fans have learned, nobody will be lamenting the lost kids when the big leaguers are parading down Figueroa.
Yes, agreed, this is an insane column to write … if it hadn’t already been written.
Back in July 2023, this space begged the Dodgers to bolster their weak starting rotation at the trade deadline.
“They need to surrender prospects and take on debt and do whatever it takes to trade for an ace starting pitcher or they have zero shot at a championship,” I wrote at the time. “They need to find somebody who can take the ball in one of the first two games of what could be a three-game wild-card playoff series or they have zero shot at surviving that series.”
One month later, failing to improve the team for one of the rare times in his brilliant career, Andrew Friedman struck out.
Three months later, they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round of the playoffs while rolling out a rotation of noodle-armed Clayton Kershaw, massively disappointing Bobby Miller, and a human dinger machine named Lance Lynn.
Three years later it feels like it’s happening all over again, the Dodgers once again faced with a nightmare they’d rather ignore.
The team with four aces needs an ace. The team that began the season with two Cy Young candidates needs a third. The supernatural pitching staff needs help.
Start with Shohei Ohtani. They’re understandably acting like the knee-draining procedure he underwent last weekend was no big deal, but it pulled him off the mound and there has been no definitive word when he’ll return.
“I think we all know with where we’re at, who he is as a player, if there’s opportunities to be extra cautious and mindful, it’s just prudent,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told the media.
In less than three months, will “cautious and mindful” become “ready to roll?” Who knows? Ohtani is 32 with slowly diminishing tread on those overworked wheels.
Then there’s Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, the two injured Dodger starters who everyone thinks will just magically appear at full strength in the playoffs.
Believe that, and I’ve got some loose bodies to sell you.
Snell, 33, hasn’t lasted a full season in three years, and even though he’ll be pitching again soon, any season that includes even the most minor of elbow surgeries can have a problematic ending.
Glasnow, who turns 33 next month, has made but 25 starts in the last two seasons and missed the playoffs completely two years ago and by now it feels like back spasms are the least of his problems.
The surprise bright spot of the rotation has been Justin Wrobleski, and last season he didn’t allow a run in four World Series relief appearances, but can he be trusted with the start? In Tuesday’s All-Star Game, deep-bombing Miguel Vargas reminded him how the heat increases when the expectations are higher.
The starting pitcher fears are heightened by the vulnerability of the man who is catching them. Will Smith will be back from his neck injury, but he’s lately shown some of the strain of his record-setting postseason workload. And do you really want Dalton Rushing talking trash behind the plate for pressure playoff battles?
To all these worries, add the bullpen, which has fallen back to earth after its club-record 38 inning scoreless streak. Edwin Díaz can’t come back soon enough and, oh wait, does that 10.50 really ERA belong to him?
Into this tightrope-walking atmosphere would step Skubal, who underwent a minimally invasive elbow procedure in May but came back stronger than ever. He has gone 36-15 over the past three seasons with two full years of sub-3.00 ERAs while being generally regarded as the best pitcher in baseball.
He might be a rental. So what? A third consecutive championship would be forever.
The rest of the baseball world would cry foul. Who cares? The only sound that matters around here are the cheers accompanying one more title before the game goes dark.
The Dodgers’ rotation is hurting. The Dodgers window is closing. The Dodgers are on the verge of a three-peat, yet still one player away.
Go get Tarik Skubal.
The post Who says they don’t need him? Dodgers need to trade for Tarik Skubal appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
