Late on August 1, news broke that Tarik Skubal was on his way to Los Angeles. That move became official on August 2, sending the two-time AL Cy Young winner & potential kingmaker to the reigning two-time World Series champions.

The Tigers’ Return

• SP Tarik Skubal (2.79 ERA, 116 over 96.2 IP)

Look, there’s not much analysis to be done with someone like Tarik Skubal. To know just how good Skubal is, just look at the two Cy Young Awards he won in the American League.

So for this section, it’s more important to look at how the Tigers got to this point.

After two failures at making the ALCS, the Tigers were unable to get Skubal to agree on a deal for the 2026 season. Skubal, an arbitration-eligible player for the final time, took the club to arbitration — and won. He earned $32MM for the 2026 campaign, the first true crack in the armor for both sides.

Then, there were the other problems. The Tigers came out flat to start the year. Injuries piled up in the rotation. And Skubal wasn’t immune to that, as he suffered an elbow injury that required surgery to remove loose bodies in his elbow. But rather than miss months, Skubal only missed one month thanks to an innovative new surgery.

Since June, when he returned, the left-hander has been excellent. Skubal struck out 71 over 53.1 IP, although the home run ball (eight HR allowed) did sting him to a certain extent. Nonetheless, impressive numbers for the now-former Tigers’ ace.

Power arsenal, and the type of pitcher who would be a #1 starter for any MLB club.

The Dodgers’ Return

• OF Zyhir Hope (.293/.369/.530, 23 HR & 41 XBH over 94 GP (AA))
• SP River Ryan (4.46 ERA, 43 K over 36.1 IP (AAA))
• SP Brady Smith (4.36 ERA, 113 K over 74.1 IP (A & A+))

Outfielder Zyhir Hope is the most notable prospect piece in this return, one that involved a consensus top-100 prospect, a borderline top-100 prospect, and an upside grab with Brady Smith.

Hope was an 11th-round pick out of high school in 2023 who the Cubs had to go overslot & woo from going to university. Months later, the Cubs traded him as part of the deal that netted Michael Busch. Since then, he’s steadily developed into a very good power hitter in the Minors. His 23 home runs are already a career-high, and Hope is also two stolen bases away from a 20-20 season.

The upside is high with someone like Hope, who has legitimate 30-35 home run potential in the Majors. But as we’ve documented numerous times, Hope has significant swing-and-miss trouble, which makes forecasting how much contact he could make at the MLB level difficult.

River Ryan, who will be 28 years of age later this month, is the lone piece with MLB experience. Ryan was called up midway through the 2024 season by the Dodgers and pitched well before needing season-ending surgery. He missed all of 2025 and came back to Triple-A to start 2026.

Live fastball pitcher who was able to ratchet it up to 100+ MPH regularly before the injury. And the good thing about his return was that the velocity was back in full form with Oklahoma City this season.

However, high-risk pitcher. Ryan, as of the trade, was on the IL, as he made just eight starts in 2026 before the move.

The last piece of this deal was Brady Smith, a third-round pick in 2023 in the midst of a breakout season down in A-ball. Smith was one of the top swing-and-miss pitchers in the California League this season. In fact, before his promotion to High-A, Smith had the second-highest Whiff% in the circuit over his last four weeks at the level.

Fastball up to 92-96 MPH, plus a changeup and a breaking ball.

Analysis

From the Dodgers’ standpoint, this is a clear victory.

The Dodgers had to part with just one of their true top prospects in Zyhir Hope. Yes, Ryan has upside but the reality is A) the Dodgers have a good amount of pitching depth to spare and B) his injury history makes him more high-risk, despite the upside. But most importantly, the Dodgers didn’t have to part with any player from their MLB roster. No Andy Pages, no Justin Wrobleski, no Emmet Sheehan.

Now, every NL playoff contender, including any AL team that could face the Dodgers in a potential World Series matchup, must contend with the gauntlet of a rotation staff. Tarik Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a potentially healthy Blake Snell, and just maybe, Shohei Ohtani.

As for the Tigers, there is a strong argument to be made that this trade simply should not have happened.

First & foremost, the Tigers are not out of the playoff race yet. Sure, it’ll be a tough slog — but there is simply too much parity between all Wild Card-competing teams not named the New York Yankees right now. And for all the flaws that the Tigers have, there’s still plenty of talent.

But from a trade & management standpoint, the reality is that Tarik Skubal was the ultimate kingmaker available this trade deadline. No team had that kind of asset to potentially sell. While there is legitimate upside with Hope & Ryan, neither is a guarantee by any means. The only true way to sell this kind of trade was to get at least one regular Major Leaguer off the roster, like a Pages or Wrobleski.

At least doing so would have allowed the Tigers to patch up some of the holes on the current roster.

On top of that, there’s also another element at play: trading away a premium asset like Skubal for an offer believed to be too low, and it can point to some weakness in any club’s trade strategy.

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