Talks between the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers around Tarik Skubal began to pick up Friday and turned increasingly more aggressive by Saturday afternoon. Moments before the Dodgers' 6:10 p.m. PT first pitch, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman walked into manager Dave Roberts' office and told him the deal, barring a medical hiccup, was essentially done. News that the Dodgers were acquiring Skubal for a three‑prospect package consisting of outfielder Zhyir Hope, and starting pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith broke later that night.

"It just seems like there's always blowback with us," Roberts said. "People are passionate. We feel good about it. There's nothing that we did that no one else couldn't have done." "We have to have the players to go pull something like this off, and we've still got, you know, arguably the top one or two or three farm systems in baseball."

A late bloomer who lasted until the ninth round of the 2018 draft, Skubal began to emerge as one of the game's most talented pitchers in 2022 and 2023, and he took it to another level thereafter. From 2024 to 2025, Skubal went 31-10 with a 2.30 ERA and a whopping 469 strikeouts in 387⅓ innings.

The narrative that the Dodgers are ruining baseball has only exacerbated because of it. Friedman said that the franchise is rewarding its passionate fans, that this trade is a testament of all the departments that have made the Dodgers an enviable franchise, and that this is a rare opportunity they want to capitalize on.