The Los Angeles Dodgers don’t make offseason moves; they make statements. And if Tarik Skubal is truly in play, Los Angeles has the talent base, spending power, and competitive urgency to blow away the Detroit Tigers and make the biggest statement of the winter.
Skubal is a flex for the Dodgers, who would love sending that kind of message when they’re chasing history.
This is an arms race for 2026.
In the National League, the Braves and Phillies keep loading up front-end pitching. The Padres are trying to close the gap. The Mets don’t even have a complete rotation right now, but they have the money and the motive to enter the ace market. On the American League side, the Blue Jays pushed the Dodgers to seven games last October, while the Yankees, Red Sox and Astros are all building around power arms with legitimate World Series expectations.
The Dodgers remain the standard.
Shohei Ohtani is back to being a full two-way force. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has settled into the front of the rotation. Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, when healthy, look like aces in any other uniform. Roki Sasaki will be handled like the long-term superstar he is.
But for a team going for a three-peat, the priority isn’t simply talent. It’s innings.
Ohtani’s workload will always be managed. Snell and Glasnow are elite but not built for 200 innings. Sasaki’s usage will be carefully plotted. Yamamoto is coming off heavy usage en route to being named the World Series MVP.
Skubal erases all of that instantly.
Back-to-back Cy Young Awards. Nearly 200 innings of elite swing-and-miss. Top-tier efficiency. A left-handed anchor who stabilizes every other role on the staff. He is exactly the kind of pitcher a dynasty adds when it knows the window is open and the league is coming.
And the price? It’s steep — and it should be.
Former MLB GM Jim Bowden suggested a package that could land Skubal. It included right-handed pitcher Emmet Sheehan, left-handed pitchers Justin Wrobleski and Jackson Ferris and outfielder Zyhir Hope. That’s a package that gives the Detroit Tigers immediate big-league innings, long-term left-handed upside, and one of the most athletic young outfielders in the minors.
Bowden didn’t downplay the impact of pairing Skubal with LA’s rotation depth, noting it would be the kind of move that “keeps the Dodgers ahead of every other contender” and forces rivals to change their offseason plans.
This isn’t about Los Angeles needing an arm to survive 162. It’s about the Dodgers looking at the Braves, Phillies, Mets, Blue Jays, Yankees, and Astros and deciding whether Skubal is the final statement in a three-peat push.