The Dodgers acquired Tarik Skubal during Saturday night’s Red Sox game, completing a deal that Andrew Friedman said began Friday and was wrapped up before the night was over. Los Angeles sent River Ryan, Zyhir Hope and Brady Smith to Detroit for the two-time Cy Young Award winner.
That is why Jeff Passan was being searched on Sunday: the biggest deadline move in baseball happened while the Dodgers and Red Sox were on the same field, and it landed a pitcher who can change the shape of October. Friedman said the front office focused on one player and moved fast enough to finish the job before the weekend ended, adding Skubal to a rotation that already belongs to the two-time defending World Series champions.
Chad Tracy did not pretend the news was small. He said he had no interest in the details beyond the fact that the Dodgers had made themselves better, adding that if the two clubs meet again, the Red Sox will deal with it then. He also said he does not keep notifications on for trade news, which sounded less like indifference than a working manager trying to stay inside the game in front of him.
That is the part that makes the move sharper than a simple deadline headline. The Red Sox were trading and deadline-watching in the same stretch, but Tracy said nothing had altered the day-to-day routine. He said everybody in baseball follows the movement, then drew the line back to his own club: the Red Sox had a job to do, and if something changed, he expected to hear from Craig Breslow. The baseball world may have spent Sunday reacting to the trade, but the Red Sox kept playing.
Tracy’s bluntest line was also the most revealing. He said Skubal is one of the best pitchers in baseball and that the Dodgers now look positioned for a strong rotation. That is the point of the trade and the reason it mattered immediately: the Dodgers did not just add depth, they added the kind of arm that can turn a series if these clubs see each other again in the World Series. For now, the next deadline clock is the one to watch, with 6 p.m. Monday still hanging over the market.
Brewers Standings: Jeff Passan puts Milwaukee Brewers in deadline trade mix
