The Los Angeles Dodgers apparently looked at the most loaded roster in baseball and decided it still wasn’t enough.
Los Angeles has acquired back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers, adding arguably the best pitcher in baseball to a team already chasing its third consecutive World Series championship.
At what point does this stop being impressive and start becoming ridiculous?
The Dodgers sent prospects Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith to Detroit for Skubal. Los Angeles certainly paid a significant price, but here’s the ridiculous part: the Dodgers managed to land Skubal without giving up a single player from their active MLB roster.
So the defending back-to-back champions just added a pitcher who has won consecutive Cy Young Awards without weakening their current team.
Great.
Skubal joins an organization already featuring Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and an absurd collection of talent that would look unrealistic if you tried building it in MLB The Show.
And that’s exactly why baseball fans outside Los Angeles have every reason to be annoyed.
There’s nothing technically wrong with what the Dodgers are doing. They have money, an elite farm system and one of baseball’s smartest front offices. Other organizations are allowed to spend aggressively and develop enough prospects to make blockbuster trades, too.
But that doesn’t make the result any less frustrating.
Baseball is supposed to be unpredictable. Instead, the Dodgers are starting to make October feel like everyone else is competing for the opportunity to stop Los Angeles.
Adding Skubal only makes the gap look wider.
This isn’t building a superteam anymore. It’s collecting them.
The Dodgers are attempting to become the first MLB team to win three consecutive World Series titles since the Yankees won from 1998-2000.
And somehow, their solution at the trade deadline was simple:
Add another superstar.
You can respect the Dodgers for doing everything possible to win while also admitting this is becoming a serious problem for competitive balance.
Los Angeles isn’t breaking baseball’s rules.
They’re just exposing how absurd the game can look when one organization has the money, prospects, stars and front-office competence to exploit those rules better than everyone else.
If the Dodgers finish this season by lifting another World Series trophy, nobody should be surprised.
The rest of baseball had enough trouble beating them already.
Now they have Tarik Skubal.
