Well, the dream was fun while it lasted, but Tarik Skubal, one of the best pitchers on the planet and certainly the best pitcher available at the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline, has been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, not the Chicago Cubs, because of course he has.
The rumors were heating up all day, but they started to hit a fever pitch when top-25 (and former Cubs) prospect Zyhir Hope was scratched from his game at Double-A earlier tonight.
At this point in the career of Hope, who was traded to the Dodgers as part of the trade for Michael Busch, he’s the sort of prospect that only gets dealt in massive deals like this. But while he is undoubtedly the centerpiece, he wasn’t the only notable prospect included. The Dodgers are also sending ANOTHER top-100 prospect, right-hander River Ryan (#68 to MLB Pipeline), plus an organizational top-20 in righty Brady Smith.
Jeff Passan was first with the reporting.
Tarik Skubal Traded
That is a massive return for two months of Tarik Skubal. He’s an incredible pitcher, but rentals don’t typically command quite so much. Then again, rentals aren’t typically as good as Skubal. Either way, I’m not sure the Cubs should have tried to beat it, even if the Brewers probably should have.
Yes, the Cubs still need starting pitching as badly as anybody. And yes, this team is good enough to deserve significant upgrades at the deadline. But with the first-round bye more than an arm’s length away, and a billion openings in the rotation next year, they were probably right not to top that for a rental. That is just such a significant pay. But that’s what it costs for maybe the best rental starter to ever hit the market (i.e., a steep absolute cost, even if not an overpay).
Tarik Skubal will also be a free agent at the end of the season, and you can bet the Dodgers will be on a full court press to sign him.
Speaking of the Dodgers, the writing may have been on the wall for this one ever since Shohei Ohtani’s immediate future as a starter went into question. The very knee injury that’s been keeping him off the mound (while thrusting PCA to the center of the MVP race) is likely what put the Dodgers on the track to acquire Tarik Skubal in the first place. Their rotation would have been FINE without him, mind you, but it is once again (still?) insanely elite: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Shohei Ohtani (when healthy), Justin Wrobleski, Blake Snell (when healthy), and Tyler Glasnow (when healthy). And that’s without even mentioning Roki Sasaki or Emmet Sheehan or Eric Lauer, all of whom have either already had success or have plenty of upside.
But even if Ohtani didn’t go down, the Dodgers still made sense for Skubal, because there is not a star player who becomes available that they don’t check in on, free agency or trade. That’s what you do when you have the biggest purse in the league AND an elite farm system AND back-to-back World Series championships to your name. The first-round bye all in their sights is just a cherry on top.
But, whatever. That’s done. The Cubs can move on and try to land one of the many other impressive starting pitchers on the market, both controllable and rentals, plus an elite reliever or two. That’s the plan, anyway. So let’s hope this deal can help break the dam and get things moving.
Plus, hey, at least it wasn’t to the Brewers?
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