We deliberately held off on releasing today’s musing to align with the 6 PM ET MLB trade deadline. We made that calculated decision because we wanted to be among the first who might let you know that the esteemed Helios Ramos was leaving California and heading to New York and that Ben Rortvedt was leaving the Empire State to return there–even though he never played a single minute for the Mets team that saw fit to help out the very team that has now become the most despised franchise in all sports.
That’s in part because we suspect at least some of you actually cared about the flurry of deals that went down at almost a dizzying rate since Saturday night, when the first and most significant domino fell when those despised villianous game-wrecking Dodgers somehow pulled off this heist that no less than FOUR ATHLETIC sportswriters– Cody Stavenhagen, Ken Rosenthal, Fabian Ardaya and Katie Woo–gang-reported:
The back-to-back reigning World Series champions are acquiring the American League’s back-to-back reigning Cy Young Award winner, giving the Los Angeles Dodgers one more elite player in their quest to cement a dynasty.
Tarik Skubal, the most coveted pitcher at this year’s MLB trade deadline, was traded by the Detroit Tigers on Saturday. In return, the Tigers received three prospects: right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.
In placing this tidbit ahead of so much else that transpired today, we are acknowledging that we dropped the ball in somehow missing this entirely yesterday, when of course we know the biggest deal that happened on Saturday involved Luis Castillo. That’s mostly because the person who controls this site was hell bent on awaiting for the OFFICIAL stamp of approval on the Skubal trade from MLB.com before he would consent to even considering a write-up, and somehow felt the world outside of Chicagoland obsessives would consider that responsible reporting.
I guess we hold ourselves to a far higher standard than those aforementioned Athletic writers, not to mention the staffs of ESPN (who originally reported the Skubal deal), CBS Sports, USA TODAY, FOX Sports and their RATES AND BARRELS podcast partners who produced an emergency video podcast. I didn’t see any of them dropping retractions today, so I suppose one might say they were “lucky”. I’m a New Yorker by birth and an Angeleno by residency so I wouldn’t be one such person.
I also won’t begrudge for one nanosecond the fact that the Dodgers were able to pull off the Skubal deal. Rosenthal, who has a LOT more experience in Chicago sports let alone national platforms that I or my partner in crime ever will, was especially motivated to join me in absolute intolerance for the flyover states’ collective call for investigations and reform–which he indeed dropped on Saturday night even before the “official” stamp was stuck onto it:
Here comes the anti-Dodger hysteria. Here comes another round of small-market defeatism. Here comes the lockout, not that its occurrence was ever in doubt.
Yes, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ trade for back-to-back American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal on Saturday night will only elevate the frustration of many fans and people inside the game with Major League Baseball’s economic system. Yet, Skubal to the Dodgers was not a fait accompli, nor should it have been. Other contenders had big-time prospects to offer. Every team could afford the remaining $9.4 million on Skubal’s contract. How is it that the Dodgers again were the ones to step up?
The Dodgers aren’t just doing this with money, though their vast revenues sure help. They are the industry standard, or close to it, in scouting, developing, trading and every other aspect of a baseball operation. They also possess a singular quality that most other teams do not, a fearlessness that could help them become the first team to win three straight World Series since the 1998 to 2000 Yankees.
(C)onsider the Skubal trade. The Dodgers parted with their third-round pick in 2023, right-hander Brady Smith, and two players they acquired in deals that initially attracted little attention… Ryan came in a trade from the San Diego Padres for outfielder Matt Beaty before even throwing a pitch in the Padres’ organization. Hope arrived in a deal in which the Dodgers were trying to clear 40-man roster spots. First baseman Michael Busch and pitcher Yency Almonte went to the Chicago Cubs for Hope and pitcher Jackson Ferris, who had so little professional experience they did not need to be protected on the 40-man roster.
So this was a deal that was actually several years in the making, its roots in the middle of two consecutive division series ousters (one a sweep) at the hands of the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks–significantly smaller-market division rivals. A deal for a pitcher that has damn good stuff when healthy and indeed a couple of Cy Young Awards but who has a history of injuries and missed several starts earlier this season. And even when healthy in the past two seasons Skubal was unable to deliver the Tigers a Game 5 division series win to advance them in the playoff tournament–an unpredictable juggernaut that the Dodgers themselves were not only victims of as noted above but they required a bullpen game to survive down 2-1 to the Padres way before they took full advantage of the Yankees’ meltdowns to capture their first “real” title in 36 years in 2024 and needed a slew of clutch late-inning homers from Max Muncy, Miguel freaking Rojas and Will Smith–quality ballplayers, to be sure, but hardly Hall of Famers–and a couple of ridiculously close defensive plays to avoid falling victim to the Toronto Blue Jays last year.
I have two words for the Midwesterners who took to whatever medium would allow them access to demand that the sport overhaul the system that, to quote the whining women of ESPN Radio’s UNSPORTSMANLIKE, “means the script is already written before the game starts”. Jealous much?
FFS, the Cubs and Cardinals, the teams these ladies (Courtney Cronin and Michelle Smallmon) adore are both still very much in the playoff race. The Cubs currently control the NL’s top wild card–and home-field advantage in the Wild Card round–while the overachieving Cardinals are just four games behind the Phading Phils and the streaky D-Backs for the final slot. The Cubs actually went out and to their credit dusted themselves off and in broad strokes acquired starters Clay Holmes (and Tyrone Taylor) from the Mets, Kevin Gausman from the Blue Jays and Braxton Garrett from the Marlins–plus reliever Ryan Zeferjahn from the Angels–in approximately 24 hours. The Cards? They punted starter Dustin May and reliever Jo Jo Romero to their own division rival Brewers and effectively threw up a white flag. At a time when teams with equal to far lower playoff odds than theirs were at least trying to help themselves win now in what might just be the last pennant race we all experience for a while.
BLEACHER REPORT PM and their byline-shy compilers did an excellent job recapping the 31 deals that were completed, including the ones that snuck in under the wire that saw the Brewers swipe Antonio Senzatela from Colorado, the Astros nab Daulton Varsho from the inexplicably active Jays and the Red Sox poaching Erik Miller from the Giants–someone to throw to their newly acquired and arguable crown jewel of the Monday haul, catcher Adely Rutschman. Rutschman just happens to be injured at the moment so the Orioles also threw in Jake Rogers–himself obtained from Detroit just days ealier–as insurance until the former number one draft pick is healthy enough to debut in Fenway’s home red, yellow or green.
Do any of you think any the teams involved thought they were a total waste of time done strictly for sh-ts and giggles? Is anyone mad at the suddenly rejuvenated Sawx being prescient enough to acquire TWO catchers when teams truly in need of one did not?
If the results of recent post-seasons beyond the bottom line–which complainers have claimed is as important to them as the final result–mean anything is that all this is all about is getting a ticket to the dance and having enough depth and a little luck to win 11 to 13 games in October and perhaps a day or two into November. I would contend at this writing the possibility of any of the names involved in today’s deals have the potential to at least be as impactful as Miguel Rojas. And I would further contend that it’s just as likely that Ben Rortvedt could be the big, bad Dodger that comes up boxcars this time around while Skubal watches from the bullpen.
If nothing else, you all now at least have the full range of deals to ponder, sort out and perhaps rearrange your fantasy rosters around–something you wouldn’t have had had we merely been as proactive as pretty much the entire sports journalism industry outside of our little effort was on Saturday night. Consider this our way of not hesitating.
Courage…