The sudden end to the Los Angeles Dodgers' bid for a three-peat felt especially jarring to Tarik Skubal. The two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner, acquired in a trade deadline blockbuster from the Detroit Tigers, was scheduled to take the ball for Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. Then reality set in when the Milwaukee Brewers completed a stunning sweep on Oct. 15, and Skubal was suddenly talking about his Dodgers tenure in the past tense. "The group of guys, the clubhouse, the culture they have here -- it's real," he said. "I was honored to be part of it."
Whether Skubal will continue to be part of it is one of the biggest questions of the offseason. The Brewers' World Series win over the Tampa Bay Rays officially kicked off Skubal's free agency. He is a Scott Boras client who will headline an appreciably thin free agent class and is expected to venture into the open market. The Dodgers' best chance to sign him won't come until Monday, when every team gets a crack at the generational pitcher.
Skubal was coy about his pending free agency after his team's final game, saying, "Today sucks, and that's kind of where my head's at." Still, he was effusive in his praise of the Dodgers, from their resources to his friendship with fellow left-handed ace Blake Snell. He was also comforted by being close to Dr. Neal El Attrache, the surgeon who performed the procedure on his elbow.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said the front office was "still wrapping our arms around our offseason plan and strategy." The calculus around re-signing Skubal is as uncertain as when the Dodgers traded for him. The rotation is well stocked for 2027, but Shohei Ohtani won't pitch a full season and the team has a history of trading for stars and letting them walk in free agency.
Source: ESPN MLB · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing