Somewhere on the Venn Diagram you can find (A) “LeBron James ruins basketball because he just wants to play with winners” and (B) “The Dodgers ruin baseball because they win.” Shoulder-to-shoulder, probably.
The Pavlov bells were ringing desperately Saturday night when the Dodgers traded three minor league players for Tarik Skubal, the Detroit lefthander who has won the past two American League Cy Young Awards and, represented by Scott Boras, can become a free agent at season’s end.
Season’s end? No, the end of baseball as we know it. Various pundits across America proclaimed that the trade automatically means the 2027 season will never be played, thanks to the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations in which the owners want to institute a salary cap. The logic is a little strange, considering that the Dodgers haven’t actually signed Skubal, and we’re supposed to conclude that baseball peace would be at hand if the Tampa Bay Rays, for instance, had made the same deal.
The same howls were heard when the Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker for a clinically insane $60 million a year, and now Tucker is hitting .235 with a .700 OPS, which is below the N.L. average. Yet the Dodgers remain in charge of the National League West, mostly thanks to the contributions of Andy Pages (whom they signed for $300,000) and Justin Wrobleski (their 11th round pick in 2021).. Wrobleski is 11-2 with a 2.88 ERA and is the best control pitcher in the league. Pages, struggling lately, still has 71 RBIs.
The Dodgers must have felt guilty about destroying baseball because they spent the weekend getting swept at home by the Red Sox. But then they’ve destroyed the game with every trade and acquisition they’ve made. MLB is reportedly asking for advice from Iran. How many obliterations can it survive?
The most bizarre aspect of the anger is the Dodgers did not have the right of first refusal when it came to Skubal. Anybody could have traded for him. Since most of the other contenders had more pitching problems than do the Dodgers, one assumes somebody would have offered more than pitcher River Ryan, outfielder Zyhir Hope and pitcher Brady Smith. Not that anybody knows how good those youngsters are, although Ryan is 27 with a Tommy John-ed elbow. But nobody topped the Dodgers’ bid. Instead the Braves went for Tyler Mahle, and the Cubs went for Kevin Gausman, and the Rays went for Freddy Peralta. Since the trade deadline isn’t until 6 pm Monday (ET), you can expect more developments. If the Dodgers work out a deal for San Diego closer extraordinaire Mason Miller, please draw the shades and shelter in place.
“How could these other teams allow this to happen?” sputtered Wayne Randazzo, the Angels’ play-by-play man. Forgive him. In his position, you’d change the subject too.
Skubal’s WHIP this season is 0.910. This would be the fourth consecutive season it is below 1.000. We probably assume, wrongly, that everyone knows what WHIP is. It’s Walks And Hits Per Innings Pitched and is, therefore, a gauge of how many baserunners a pitcher deals with. Anything under 1.300 is presentable, anything under 1.200 is quite good, and to be under 1,000 is overwhelming, especially for a starter. Beyond that, Skubal has walked 92 batters since the end of the 2022 season.
He is a fastball-changeup pitcher with a sinker. He has lost 42 games in 153 starts. And he’s lefthanded, in a landscape where the lefthanded hitter is increasingly dominant. He doesn’t turn 30 until November.
One doesn’t know how much Shohei Ohtani’s recent knee and bicep pains affected this decision. But the Dodgers think Blake Snell is one rehab start away from returning, and Tyler Glasnow is beginning that process after he threw batting practice in Dodger Stadium, and they already have Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and for that matter Wrobleski and the improving Roki Sasaki. A bullpen that comprises the newly healthy Edwin Diaz, Tanner Scott, Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia and Jack Dreyer should be fine, and if emergencies hit, plenty of starters can bite the bayonet.
Gone are the days when the Dodgers had to rush Clayton Kershaw back into playoff series with three days’ rest. While the rest of baseball puts the burden on their relievers, Los Angeles is going back to the 60s and leaning on its starters, all $100 million of them, if you add up the 2026 paychecks of Skubal, Snell, Glasnow and Yamamoto.
This money seems outrageous to most civilians and even on baseball’s Monopoly board. But at least it’s well-spent. The Phillies are paying $99.5 million to Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo and Aaron Nola. They are 44-18 when Wheeler, Sanchez and Luzardo start. They are 9-13 when Nola starts, and their No. 5 starter is a coin flip, although rookie Andrew Painter looked sharp on Friday. The Dodgers wanted Skubal. The Phillies absolutely needed him. If they didn’t want to give up promising minor league players to get Skubal, as they thrash around in a bid for a wild-card, that’s bad. If they didn’t have such players in their system to give, that’s worse.
And, no, this has nothing to do with the salary cap which, theoretically, would promote “competitive balance” in baseball. A salary floor, in which the Pirates, Marlins, Rockies, etc. would have a payroll within shouting distance of the elites? Yes, that would help. But the Brewers and Rays regularly prove that a nimble and economical organization, with some foresight and guts, can play head-to-head with anybody.
The Red Sox have right-sized themselves into the 12th spot on the payroll chart but have won 28 of their last 33. They’re doing this with a $31 million starter (Sonny Gray), an $18 million closer (Aroldis Chapman), an $18 million first baseman (Willson Contreras) and a whole lot of sub-millionaires. If you saw shortstop Andruw Monasterio diving and throwing like a peak Ozzie Smith all weekend, you might not believe, or care, that he’s a $780K player. Regular shortstop Trevor Story and staff ace Garrett Crochet make $50 million between them, and they won’t be back anytime soon.
Baseball’s lust for a salary cap will require commissioner Rob Manfred to borrow some spinal fluid from hockey commissioner Gary Bettman, who never budged as the 2003-04 season slipped away and got the cap he wanted. A year-long baseball lockout is still hard to imagine, despite all the storm warnings.
And what if it happens? Baseball wiped out its playoffs in 1994 and the only casualty was the city of Montreal, which was girding for a World Srries and wound up liquidating its team and driving away its fans. Washington got the Expos 11 years later and won the championship as the Nationals in 2019. Throughout baseball, fans had long since returned to the seats they had foresworn. It took Cal Ripken’s 1995 quest, the Yankees’ return to the trophy room in 1996, and the McGwire-Sosa home run lovefest of 1998 to lure them. But a post-lockout game would offer the same compelling stories this time.
The fact that baseball is too dumb to die is no reason to dumb yourself down to understand it. Just ask yourself and your neurotic fan next door, to consider the Dodgers and their $317 million Opening Day payroll and their 69-43 record. And then consider the Mets and their $354 million Opening Day payroll and their 47-66 record. Which team is the clear and present danger?
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