Dodgers Don’t Need Tarik Skubal, and One Insider Has a Good Reason Why

Let’s get this out of the way: Tarik Skubal is really good. The Detroit Tigers lefty is having a Cy Young-caliber season, and any team with World Series aspirations should at least pick up the phone. But the Los Angeles Dodgers? According to one insider, they should hang up.

Dylan Hernandez of The California Post made the case that the Dodgers — who own the best record in baseball and are chasing a third straight title — don’t actually need Skubal. Not because he wouldn’t help. But because they’re already built in a way that makes him a luxury, not a necessity.

“Any time a championship contender can acquire a pitcher of Skubal’s caliber, it should. It would be negligent not to,” Hernandez wrote. “Only in the case of these Dodgers, they’re not typical contenders. They’re not typical two-time defending champions, if such a thing exists. Which is why the team in a better position than any other in baseball to strike a deal for Skubal shouldn’t. They can win without him.”

That’s a bold take for a team that keeps spending like money grows in the outfield ivy. Last winter, the Dodgers signed Kyle Tucker to a $60 million per year deal even though they already had Teoscar Hernandez. That one hasn’t panned out great, but it didn’t stop them from writing checks. This winter they added Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and, oh yeah, Shohei Ohtani to the rotation. That’s a playoff staff that looks like a video game roster.

Adding Skubal to that group would let Ohtani focus on hitting through October, which is not nothing. Ohtani as a designated hitter only in the playoffs? That sounds like a huge advantage. But the cost in prospects would be massive, and the Dodgers have real holes elsewhere.

The bullpen could use some help. The bench could use a bat. But the core that won two rings is still intact, and that group has earned some benefit of the doubt. Hernandez’s point is basically: don’t burn prospect capital on a rental when you can save it for something bigger.

Something like Elly De La Cruz. The Reds shortstop is exactly the kind of young superstar the Dodgers could target this winter to replace an aging star. That’s a trade that makes more sense in the long run than a Skubal deal in July.

So yeah, the Dodgers could trade for Skubal. They probably won’t. And according to at least one insider, they shouldn’t. That might actually be the smartest play of all.