Tarik Skubal, as you know, was traded from the Tigers to the Dodgers for three prospects.
The general consensus around baseball is that almost any team, including the Cubs, could have matched that offer.
Why did this not happen and why did the acknowledged best starter in MLB go to the team that probably needed him least?
If you believe conspiracy theories that were floating around the internet over the weekend, this was an orchestrated attempt by owners to get Skubal to the Dodgers — where he very
likely would have signed as a free agent after this season — so then team owners could cry, “See? We need a salary cap because we don’t have competitive balance!”
I mean, that’s just silly. Right?
That’s especially true because team owners don’t want a salary cap because of “competitive balance.” All you have to do is look at the current standings to understand that at least in 2026, we do have that. As of Monday morning, there are 23 teams within 4.5 games of a postseason spot. Granted, a fair number of those teams are under .500 and likely to be sellers — as the Tigers were with Skubal, even though they are one of those 23 teams. And you can make an argument that teams don’t have to have the most money to win, given that the small-payroll Brewers and Rays are both comfortably in first place in their divisions, and Milwaukee has the best record in MLB… and the big-market Mets, with one of the biggest payrolls in baseball, are 19 games under .500.
That still leaves us with the Dodgers, who these days remind me of this 2003 headline in The Onion:
That’s not literally true of the Dodgers, it just feels that way. However, the Dodgers do have something that gives them a competitive advantage:
$66 million a year certainly is more than just chump change in Major League Baseball’s hierarchy. You can see why some owners who don’t have that advantage would be unhappy with the Dodgers about that.
The question “What should be done about that?” is going to be a major topic of discussion around the next CBA.
In the meantime, as you know, the Cubs made two trades with the Blue Jays on Sunday, swapping Jameson Taillon and cash considerations for a PTBNL and cash considerations, and later sending two minor leaguers to Toronto for right-hander Kevin Gausman. Curiously, these two could wind up facing each other as starting pitchers on Thursday, when the Jays visit Wrigley for a make-up of the rainout on June 20.
Today’s MLB Trade Deadline comes up at 5 p.m. CT, though as usual we’ll probably hear about a few deals for an hour or so after that. Feel free to use this thread for deadline discussion all day, and of course if the Cubs make a deal (or more!) there will be separate front-page posts on those trades.
Have at it!
