Brandon Gomes said the Dodgers remain in contact with Tarik Skubal’s camp and expect to meet with the top free agent at some point, a sign the club is keeping one eye on a possible blockbuster while the winter market begins to settle. The Dodgers GM spoke Tuesday in Las Vegas during the general manager meetings, where he described the club’s offseason approach as business as usual.
That matters now because the Dodgers are doing this while the market is still forming and while the collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on Dec. 1, a date that could bring a lockout and narrow the window for action. Gomes said the Dodgers’ most pressing needs are still the bullpen and the bench, which gives the Skubal conversation extra weight: if the club is still weighing its needs, it is also still weighing how far to go for the pitcher who sits at the center of Mlb Free Agency.
Gomes did not talk like a man ready to force the issue. He said the club loves the player and the person, but also stressed that it is still working through what the roster really needs, what a contract would look like and where Skubal will end up. He said Skubal was awesome to get to know and fit in great in the clubhouse, but also made clear that those positives do not yet point to a finished plan. The Dodgers have kept the conversation alive; they have not yet turned it into a decision.
That uncertainty is the point. The Dodgers entered the winter without gaping holes, and their recent moves have been modest, with Pedro Guerrero added to the coaching staff and Christian Cairo claimed off waivers from the New York Mets on Monday. In the same stretch, Shoki Oda has begun meeting with major-league teams after deciding to go straight from high school baseball in Japan to the United States, another reminder that the Dodgers are surveying multiple lanes at once rather than rushing toward one obvious answer.
Gomes also said the club thinks highly of Oda and called him super talented and fun to watch throw, but the immediate question remains Skubal. The Dodgers expect a meeting with him at some point, and that is the clearest next step on a winter that may move quickly before Dec. 1 closes the door.
