Why the Tarik Skubal trade to Dodgers is ‘frustrating’
Yahoo Sports senior MLB analysts Jordan Shusterman and Jake Mintz break down Dodgers acquisition of one of the top pitchers in baseball and the team's financial advantage. Check out the full conversation on the "Baseball Bar-B-Cast" podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Like the players themselves are fascinating.
Scubal himself is fascinating in terms of just what he is as a pitcher right now, where he fits into this rotation, why they felt like they needed to do this, what that tells us about Snell and Glasnow and Roqui- Yeah and Ohtani on the mound.
There's so many different directions we could go.
The fact that they did it is, is really not surprising, but, man, oh, man.
I mean, they, they, they did it again.
Them, them Dodgers.
Here's where I'll go now with Scubal.
The package that the Dodgers gave up to get Scubal, any other team in the league could have assembled that package.
Scubal said this today- when speaking to the media at Dodger Stadium, "Any team could have traded for me.
If you don't like what the Dodgers did, play better."
Don't like it, trade better.
Trade better.
That is true.
However, the appetite the Dodgers had to make this deal is simply on a different level than any of the other teams in the sport.
A dollar to me is different than a dollar to Juan Soto.
Yep.
A dollar means more to me than it does to a man with a $765 million contract.
Fact or fiction?
Yeah, yeah.
The same player of the same general value to the Dodgers means less than the same player for the Brewers or the Rays or even the Braves.
And that is because the Dodgers can backfill those holes easier than any other organization in the sport.
I am not saying any of this to say we need a salary cap.
I think these are slightly different conversations.
We will have ample time to discuss this when the baseball is not being played this winter.
But it's a fact.
The Dodgers can do things that other teams cannot do.
And something that gets lost in this conversation, Jordan, is that their financial advantage, which they have earned, manifests in player development.
Totally.
They have more scouts than anybody else.
Yep.
They have more player development people than anybody else.
Coaches, more analysts.
They have more analysts than anybody else.
Exactly.
Whenever one of these orgs is firing pro scouts, the Dodgers swoop in and take them.
That's exactly right.
And it's like they can do that because there's so much money in the bag.
Yeah.
And, now that doesn't mean that they still don't get credit for- Absolutely doing the evaluation- Absolutely to trade Michael Busch, also an expendable piece, for a Zaire Hope that you can then f- flip for Tarik Skubal.
Trade Matt Beatty for this guy River Ryann, 11th round pick, who spent five year, five years at a D2 school as a division two pros- as a two-way player and see if we can turn him- Yeah into a top pitching prospect that we can trade for Tarik Skubal.
Or, or Brady Smith, who was like not a big name in high school, that they could draft in the third round and turn him into a major piece.
They did not trade 10 players for Scubal.
They got these three guys in very different ways and were able to turn that into maybe the best pitcher on the planet.
Maybe for two months, maybe for a whole lot longer.
That's a different conversation, but it is a, it was a remarkable achievement and also something that I totally understand everyone being really frustrated about.
Last thing I'll say before we send it to break for you folks watching on Yahoo Sports Network, I think this makes me more excited for the playoffs.
Is it- Oh, yeah.
Oh, my gosh, of course.
Is it imposing?
Is it horrifying?
Is it dispiriting a little bit?
Yeah, maybe.
Guess what?
I'm, I can't wait to see this.
