Every Tarik Skubal trade conversation in baseball is about to get very real, because the man has back-to-back Cy Young awards, the best single-season K-to-walk ratio in the history of Major League Baseball at 13.14, went 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA in 2024 to win the AL pitching Triple Crown, then posted a 2.21 ERA and 241 strikeouts in 2025 to prove it wasn’t a fluke, and he’s sitting on an injured list right now for a team that’s 22-37 and has no shot at anything. Jeff Passan said it flat. If you can get Tarik Skubal, you get Tarik Skubal. He had elbow surgery in May, he’s already back throwing simulated games, and Detroit is not coming back from 11.5 games out in last place. This is the trade deadline. Here are the five teams that need to be on the phone.
Why the Milwaukee Brewers Need to Get on the Phone About a Tarik Skubal Trade
Milwaukee’s starters are averaging fewer than five innings per start, and I need you to sit with that for a second because their K/9 leads the National League. Misiorowski and Harrison are both under a 2.50 ERA and the bullpen’s been great, but nobody in that rotation can get deep into a game and so the bullpen’s eating four innings every single night to cover for a pitching staff that statistically looks elite. That’s not sustainable and the Dodgers proved it when they swept them in the NLCS last year.
Skubal went 31 starts in 2025 and averaged over six innings per outing. He goes seven when he’s locked in, which is often. The Brewers have one specific problem and this guy is the exact solution to that specific problem, and he might actually be available. If you’re Milwaukee and you won 97 games last year and still went home in four, you know how fine the margin is. Call Detroit.
The New York Yankees Already Have One of the Best Rotations in Baseball Which Is Exactly Why They Should Do This
The Yankees already have one of the best rotations in baseball, but adding Skubal to a postseason staff with Cole, Fried, and Schlittler would make them the most overwhelming October pitching lineup in recent memory. They haven’t won a World Series since 2009 and Cole and Fried have yet to take the mound at the same time this season.
Their rotation ERA’s 2.98 through late May, second in baseball. Cole’s back. Schlittler’s been legitimately great. Fried’s on the IL with a bruised elbow. They don’t need another starter. I get that.
They also haven’t won a World Series since 2009. They went to the Fall Classic in 2024 and the Dodgers beat them. Last year the Blue Jays sent them home in the ALDS before Toronto went to the World Series. At some point you have to stop talking about the rotation being good and ask whether good is enough to get to October AND win in October, because good’s not what beats the Dodgers, and the Dodgers are who’s standing in everyone’s way right now.
A postseason rotation of Cole, Fried, Skubal, and Schlittler isn’t a good rotation. It’s a different conversation. Passan noted the prorated salary on Skubal for the rest of the season is around $10 million. The Yankees have paid more than that for relievers they had no business signing. Skubal’s going to be a $300-plus million free agent. Spending a year making the case for why he should stay in New York might end up being worth more than whatever they give up to get him.
The Pittsburgh Pirates Case and the Bob Nutting Problem
Pittsburgh is 32-28 and in a legitimate NL Central race with Paul Skenes already at the top of the rotation. Skubal and Skenes would be the best 1-2 starting combination in professional baseball. The only obstacle is Bob Nutting, who’s never operated with this kind of urgency in the history of his ownership.
I need to stop on this one because it’s personal.
The Pirates are 32 and 28. They went 71-91 last year, fired Derek Shelton 38 games in, put Don Kelly in charge on an interim basis, and somehow steadied the whole thing. They haven’t been to the postseason since 2015. The reason they’re even relevant right now is Paul Skenes, who won the NL Cy Young last season and who the Pirates are paying $1.085 million this year while his fair market value is roughly 50 times that, going out every five days at 3-1 with a 3.27 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP and just carrying this team in a division where nobody’s running away.
Put Tarik Skubal behind Paul Skenes and you’ve got the best 1-2 rotation in professional baseball. I’m not exaggerating. Two Cy Young winners in their mid-20s going back-to-back for a team that’s right there in a race for the first time in eleven years. Pittsburgh fans would lose their minds. The rest of the NL Central would have a problem.
The problem is Bob Nutting.
Spotrac’s got Skenes at $50 million over the next four seasons through incentives and arbitration alone, and Jeff Passan’s thrown out $500 million when Skenes eventually hits free agency. Nutting found a franchise pitcher and the question every Pirates fan’s been asking for two years now is whether he’s willing to build around him before the window closes, because the window right now is real, and windows like this don’t just stay open.
Go get Tarik Skubal, Bob. Spend the money. Give up the prospects. Do the most aggressive thing this franchise has done in the better part of two decades and prove every person who’s ever written you off completely wrong.
You won’t.
The Chicago Cubs Need a Starter More Than Any Team on This List
Chicago’s rotation has a 4.81 ERA, Justin Steele’s out for the year with Tommy John, and Imanaga’s rehabbing at Triple-A Iowa. This isn’t a depth problem or a quality problem. It’s a rotation that’s actively preventing a legitimate offensive team from being a contender.
Jed Hoyer said it himself in June. “Our position player group is deep and it’s pretty set. We’ll be looking at pitching at that point.” Man told you exactly what he’s going to do. The Cubs are 33-30, alive in a wild card race, and they’ve been linked to more starting pitching trade conversations than any other team in baseball this summer because everyone can see the same thing Hoyer can see, which is that a rotation giving up hard contact at the third-highest rate in the league isn’t carrying anybody through October no matter how good the offense is.
If Imanaga comes back healthy and they add Skubal on top of that, Chicago stops being the team floating around .500 in June and becomes a genuine World Series conversation. The farm has the pieces. There’s no easier case to make right now than the Cubs should be first in line for this.
The Los Angeles Dodgers Are Already Unfair and This Would Make It Worse
The Dodgers won the 2024 and 2025 World Series and they’re chasing a three-peat. They’ve got the prospect capital to make a real trade, they can offer Skubal a $300-plus million free agency deal in November, and they’re one of the few organizations that can make both arguments at the same time.
They don’t need Tarik Skubal. They’re already the most dangerous team in baseball. Adding Skubal doesn’t make them better. It makes them impossible to beat. Justin Wrobleski went 7-2 with a 2.62 ERA this season and pitched five scoreless innings across four outings in the 2025 World Series. Emmet Sheehan brings big league experience and real swing-and-miss stuff. That’s a legitimate trade package and everyone in this conversation knows it.
When you’re one of the few organizations that can look Tarik Skubal in the eye and say we’ve won two in a row and we can offer you the contract you’re going to want in November, the deadline trade stops being a rental. It’s an audition. The Dodgers have run this play before and it works.
