The rest of baseball spent Friday trying to figure out what Detroit would do with Tarik Skubal. The Dodgers spent it making sure the answer was them. Jon Heyman flagged Detroit as the center of the trade deadline universe early in the day, noting the Tigers had both the best available arm in the game and, in Casey Mize, a legitimate second option teams were circling. That framing didn't last long.
Tigers are the center of attention now as Skubal talks are expected to heat up today. They have the biggest name likely to be traded and they may well have the second best starter. Casey Mize, scratched yesterday, is a former No. 1 overall pick with a 2.70 ERA and 0.99 WHIP
Interest in Mize was real and immediate, with multiple reports naming the Cubs and other clubs sniffing around Detroit's rotation depth. But Mize was always the sideshow. Skubal is a 2-time reigning AL Cy Young winner, back to full strength after elbow surgery and dealing again, and every front office in baseball knew it. He'd won a record $32 million arbitration case over the winter and was staring down free agency after this season, which meant Detroit was either signing him to a franchise-altering extension or cashing him in. They cashed him in.
The first real smoke came overnight when Heyman reported the Dodgers had scratched top prospect Zyhir Hope from his minor league lineup, a classic tell that a team is holding a piece off the field in case a deal closes. Heyman was clear at the time that nothing was official, but that Hope, MLB's No. 25 prospect, wouldn't be walking away from anything less than a monster trade.
Dodgers scratched big-time OF prospect Zyhir Hope. Word is he’s on standby in case of a trade. No trade known done yet but Hope (No. 25 MLB prospect) would only be part of a huge trade. He’s that good.
From there it moved fast. Reports had the Dodgers working to lock down frontrunner status, then talk of a package built around Hope, then the initial word from Heyman with Joel Sherman that a deal centered on Hope and pitching prospects was close. Within the hour, the confirmations started stacking up. Heyman had it. Jeff Passan had it. Mark Feinsand had it. Skubal was headed to Los Angeles.
BREAKING: The Los Angeles Dodgers are finalizing a trade for Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, sources tell ESPN.
The names in the return took a little longer to sort out, and it's easy to see why: multiple outlets initially had Emmet Sheehan in the deal before it got walked back. Passan and Rosenthal ultimately landed on the same 3 names, later confirmed directly by Feinsand: outfielder Zyhir Hope, right-hander River Ryan and right-hander Brady Smith head to Detroit, and Sheehan stays in Los Angeles.
Tigers' return for Skubal is Zyhir Hope, River Ryan and Brady Smith, source confirms. Emmet Sheehan is NOT part of the deal.
It's a wild scene for Hope in particular, who according to Feinsand was already telling minor league teammates he was Detroit-bound before the trade was even public. He's Los Angeles' No. 5 prospect and a consensus top-25 guy league-wide, which tells you how much the Dodgers valued getting this deal done. Ryan, a hard-throwing righty who's dealt with his own injury history, and Smith, a Single-A arm with helium, round out a package that's steep but not franchise-crippling for a Dodgers system that's been churning out talent for years.
For the Tigers, this is the trade every rebuild-adjacent contender dreads making: parting with a homegrown ace who's a back-to-back Cy Young winner and, per MLB.com, the sixth reigning Cy Young winner ever dealt in-season. For the Dodgers, it's just another Tuesday-in-August power move, stacking a rotation that already has championship pedigree with the best pitcher on the trade market. Whatever October looks like this year, it now runs through a Dodgers staff with Skubal on it.