Trade for Skubal? Stand Pat? The Dodgers Can Afford Any Option At Trade Deadline

In each of their last two marches to a World Series championship, the Dodgers’ deadline needs were much more pressing and obvious than they are right now. In 2024, the Dodgers made their desire for an impact arm abundantly clear and traded for the best starter available in Detroit’s Jack Flaherty. They still ended up with a dearth of reliable starting options late in the season and leaned heavily on their bullpen — they got 22 more innings from their relievers than their starters in the postseason — on their path through October.

Last year, they had the opposite problem. An injured and overworked Dodgers bullpen had thrown the most innings in baseball and ranked in the bottom 10 in ERA at the time of the deadline. That was the team’s most glaring need.

But acquiring players in the middle of the season usually requires an overpay in the form of prospect capital. The Dodgers have spent exorbitantly offseason after offseason in an attempt to build a big-league roster that doesn’t need deadline reinforcements. "I do not want to buy in July," Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman repeated before the 2025 season.

"I feel like the more times I say it out loud, the better chance it has to actually be a thing." So the Dodgers ended up making just one move for a high-leverage relief arm at the 2025 deadline, trading for Brock Stewart from the Twins, while also adding outfield depth by acquiring Alex Call from the Nationals. The team’s deadline restraint threatened their chances to repeat. Stewart made just four appearances before joining the club’s long list of injured relief arms.

The Dodgers’ bullpen issues forced them to use starting pitchers in relief throughout October and into November — the six Dodgers pitchers who appeared in Game 7 of the World Series were all starters at some point during the regular season — though they ultimately had just enough pitching to become the first back-to-back champions since the 1998-00 Yankees. This year, despite the Dodgers’ thirst for a third straight championship, Friedman might finally get his wish. WITH THE TRADE deadline less than two weeks away, they have no clear needs and the largest division lead in the sport.

The Dodgers could do nothing and would still be the favorites to three-peat. Their offense ranks first in OPS, even with Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernández underperforming at the plate. Their pitching staff ranks in the top 10 in both rotation ERA and bullpen ERA and is expecting Edwin Díaz, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow back from injury in the second half.

Of course, every contending team could use more bullpen arms. So, an approach like last year’s — some light buying on the margins, potentially even some selling to bolster an already robust farm system — seems likelier than the team completely standing pat. Remember, amid their quiet deadline last July, the Dodgers also traded big-league starter Dustin May to Boston for outfield prospects James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard.

That prudent move is an example of how a Dodgers team that routinely picks at the end of drafts with little bonus pool money has still maintained one of the most robust farm systems in the sport. Tibbs (who also plays first base) and Ehrhard are now among the club’s top hitters at Triple-A Oklahoma City, and yet those two aren’t even among the top outfield prospects on the farm. Dodgers minor league outfielders Josue De Paula, Mike Sirota, Zyhir Hope and Eduardo Quintero all rank among the top 30 prospects in all of baseball, according to MLB.com, while Charles Davalan, who was selected 41st overall by the Dodgers last year, has an OPS over .900 over his first two minor-league seasons.

With Tibbs and Ehrhard at Triple-A and De Paula, Sirota and Hope at Double-A, it won’t be long until a horde of Dodgers outfield prospects are knocking on the big-league door. But there won’t be room for all of them on a Dodgers team that has Tucker and Hernández signed through at least next season (Tucker’s four-year deal includes opt-outs after 2027 and 2028) and an All-Star in Andy Pages under team control through 2030. And right now, the Dodgers are set at virtually every position in the field.

They have All-Stars in Pages (center field), Freddie Freeman (first base) and Max Muncy (third base). They just re-signed Hernández to a three-year deal before last season and gave Tucker his massive deal in the offseason. Despite Betts’ struggles at the plate, he remains an exceptional defender at shortstop and has been a much better hitter over the past couple months.

Tommy Edman, who has spent most of his time at second base lately, has excelled at the plate after returning from ankle surgery. Catcher is a question mark with Will Smith’s neck issue taking longer than anyone expected to get right. So, if the Dodgers want some insurance behind Dalton Rushing, they could use some of their outfield prospects to add more catching.

Or, they could also use those prospects for pitching depth at the big-league level or to supplement the farm at other positions of need. …Or, they could just throw caution to the wind and win the deadline again, as they have in the past. THIS IS STILL a front office that made deadline trades for Yu Darvish in 2017, Manny Machado in 2018 and Max Scherzer and Trea Turner in 2022. And despite Friedman’s long-stated goal not to buy in July, they have the prospects to get any deal done and had a three-peat on their mind from the moment the confetti landed on the grass at Dodger Stadium during their last championship parade.

"We’re gonna be extremely driven and do everything we can to put ourselves in the best position to do it again," Friedman said last November. There aren’t many players potentially on the block who could meaningfully shift a team’s championship odds. Tarik Skubal, of course, represents an exception, should the Tigers make him available.

Maybe the uncertainty around the health of Snell’s elbow, Glasnow’s back and Shohei Ohtani’s knee will convince the Dodgers to push all in for the Tigers ace. Perhaps the Dodgers try to get him simply so the back-to-back Cy Young Award winner won’t stand in their way come October. The Dodgers don’t need anything else to win a third straight title.

But if their desire for a three-peat is insatiable, they have the resources to keep pushing as far as they desire. Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A.

Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner.