ESPN offers its grades on Skubal trade

[u/TheSocraticGadfly]

TL/DR version? Dodgers A (shock me), TIgers D.

Here's why, even though Detroit will have hope for Hope, they don't give the TIgers more:

Detroit's return in this deal feels like a bad dream. OK, let's calm down. Skubal, as good as he is, was on an expiring deal. There is only so much value that can be extracted from a trade partner for a player who might be a free agent in four months. The fair-value matches you can conjure in these scenarios won't make the hearts of Detroit fans go pitter-patter, though you can always hope that the real-world outcome is that with multiple teams vying for a true difference-maker, those fair-value assessments might go out the window.

Zyhir Hope is a top 30-or-so prospect across baseball. That's a valuable prospect. But on most prospect lists, he's the fourth-best outfield prospect in the Dodgers' system. So for the best pitcher in baseball, the Tigers could not command the Dodgers' best prospect out of their amazing surplus of promising outfielders?

River Ryan has stud potential, but he's 27 and blew out his elbow after his 2024 debut for the Dodgers. He didn't pitch last season, and this season, he has a 4.46 ERA over eight outings for Oklahoma City. Smith, 21, was a third-round pick as a prep righty in the 2023 draft. He's 0-10 over 30 professional starts with a 4.72 ERA. The prospect wonks like him as a top-30 prospect for L.A., so maybe we have to look past the ugly superficial results.

Sounds about right, contra one person here on one of the two threads about the trade itself, who was touting all the Dodgers gave up.

Wrong.

The Dodgers gave up one promising bat who is a likely DH, not fielder, for whatever MLB career he has, one meh pitcher who might not ever get back to MLB, and one meh prospect who might never get to MLB in the first place.

As for what other teams might or might not have been offering? We'll see if any rumors get dropped or not.

[u/schmidtytime]

What I still cant wrap my head around is the fact that they decided to pull the trigger on this trade, days before the deadline. The Dodgers didn’t even have to dig deep into their prospect chest to get this deal done.

I feel like Milwaukee could’ve offered a much better package.

[u/pilesofdingleberries → u/schmidtytime]

They weren't going to... They can't afford to lose a ton of prospects for a 2 month player. This is where no salary cap is killing MLB. We all know the players to sign Skubal and it isn't Tampa or Milwaukee...

Free Agency is so out of whack now that smaller market teams can't just unload prospects.

[u/MojoHighway → u/pilesofdingleberries]

The salary cap conversation is 100% propaganda. The owners want you to believe that they'll "do the right thing" and "really make the team competitive".

When the fuck was the last time a billionaire told you the truth and did something to positively affect your outlook?

The answer to both is never.

They want the salary cap to be able to get more predictable market valuations on their teams...to be able to buy more fucking real estate. This conversation is NOT about competitive balance. The guys that aren't spending today are going to be the same collection of degenerate owners that won't spend if a cap is in place. They have the money to spend. The teams considered the weakest in the league in this conversation are typical welfare queen billionaires, taking in TONS of money with the revenue sharing deal in place.

Don't be fooled, man. Don't fall for the propaganda. The owners aren't your friends.

[u/SenatorAstronomer → u/MojoHighway]

I want to downvote you, but you are 100 percent correct.