Tarik Skubal Trade: Don’t Blame the Dodgers

In what seemed inevitable, the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired the best player available on the trade market, Tarik Skubal. The best team in Major League Baseball is now even better, as it will be able to field Skubal, Shohei Ohtani (if he's healthy), Blake Snell, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the playoffs.

And we haven't even mentioned Tyler Glasnow, Emmet Sheehan, and Justin Wrobleski, who could also be part of the starting rotation or add depth to the bullpen.

Over the past two and a half years, the Dodgers have added Ohtani, Glasnow, Yamamoto, Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Edwin Diaz, Kyle Tucker, and finally Skubal.

This is enough to rile up many figures in the baseball world who believe the California team is ruining the sport.

But that's not the case—far from it. In fact, when it comes to the Skubal trade, it's much more about the nearly perfect player development system the Dodgers have built than any salary advantage they might have over the rest of the Manfred era.

Los Angeles has turned two former 11th-round picks acquired in minor trades and the 95th overall pick in the 2023 draft into a two-time American League Cy Young Award winner.

No one finds more talent at the end of the draft or within other organizations than the Dodgers. It has nothing to do with money. Rather, it's because their development system is so strong that they were able to add Skubal.

Some teams, pundits, and Major League Baseball fans need to take a long, hard look in the mirror instead of blaming the Dodgers for famine in Africa and the spread of cancer around the world.

That said, even with money and an exemplary player development system, the Dodgers aren't infallible—they nearly got eliminated in the last two postseasons.

In fact, during the 2024 Division Series, the San Diego Padres failed to close out the series, while the Toronto Blue Jays were two outs away from the championship in Game 7 of last year's World Series.

• Jo Adell is moving on.

• Brent Suter to Atlanta.

• The Rangers are open to anything.

• Robbie Ray to San Diego?

Created by humans, assisted by AI.