Dodgers acquiring ace Tarik Skubal from Tigers in blockbuster trade

Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times on Aug 2, 2026

Published in Baseball

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LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers are acquiring the biggest name of the trade deadline season, adding Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal in a blockbuster deal that bolsters their starting rotation and sent shock waves across Major League Baseball on Saturday night.

The deal, according to people with knowledge of the trade not authorized to speak publicly, comes ahead of Monday’s trade deadline. The Dodgers are sending prospects Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith to Detroit in exchange for the 29-year-old two-time American League Cy Young Award winner.

Skubal joins a rotation that was already expected to be strengthened by the return of Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow but still had question marks, particularly with Shohei Ohtani continuing to deal with a troublesome left knee.

But now with Skubal joining a rotation that features All-Stars Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Justin Wrobleski along with an improving Roki Sasaki, the pitching staff has been fortified and has considerably more flexibility as the Dodgers look ahead to the postseason and a run at a third consecutive World Series title.

“There just aren’t that many star-level players in the game,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said days before the deadline. “Any time one is available, we’re always going to participate in those conversations.”

Skubal, who is eligible for unrestricted free agency after this season, missed six weeks after undergoing surgery on his left elbow in May to remove loose bodies — a procedure performed by the Dodgers’ Dr. Neal ElAttrache.

The left-hander last pitched for the Tigers on Wednesday, going 6 2/3 innings and giving up three runs and four hits against the Baltimore Orioles. In that start, he became the fastest Tigers pitcher to reach 1,000 career strikeouts, doing so in 857 innings (Max Scherzer did it in 944 2/3 innings).

Since he returned from surgery on June 13, Skubal has made nine starts, going at least six innings in five of them. During his two Cy Young seasons in 2024 and 2025, Skubal made 62 starts and pitched a combined 387 1/3 innings.

Hope, who the Dodgers acquired from the Cubs along with left-handed prospect Jackson Ferris for Michael Busch two years ago, is ranked the No. 25 prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline. But in a farm system flush with outfield talent, he’s the Dodgers’ fourth-highest ranked outfield prospect, behind Josue De Paula (No. 4), Mike Sirota (No. 11) and Eduardo Quintero (No. 19).

Ryan is one of the Dodgers’ top two pitching prospects, but he has been limited by a recurring hamstring strain this season in Triple-A.

Smith, a right-hander in High-A, is ranked as the No. 17 prospect in the Dodgers’ system.

The Dodgers added right fielder Kyle Tucker and closer Edwin Díaz in free agency during the offseason, partially to avoid needing to make a huge splash at the trade deadline. And the team remains in first place by a comfortable margin in the National League West.

But with some wear and tear starting to show over the course of a long season — not to mention deep postseason runs the previous two seasons — the Dodgers elected to be aggressive at the deadline and better set themselves up to attempt to become the first NL team to win three consecutive World Series and just the third franchise overall to do so.