Rastall Ramblings: Skubal Trade Gives Dodgers Further Leg Up in Three-Peat Bid

At the time of this writing, the MLB trade deadline hadn’t quite arrived, but one thing already seems certain: the gap between the Los Angeles Dodgers and every other contender isn’t looking like it’ll be closing.

The two-time defending World Series champions further solidified themselves as the favorites to complete the MLB’s first three-peat since the 1998-2000 New York Yankees by acquiring two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers in a Saturday night blockbuster.

Skubal was seen as the biggest prize available at this year’s trade deadline, and the fact that he wound up with the Dodgers of all teams has set off yet another round of discourse on their dominance and what it says about the current state of the MLB and what effect it might have on the impending work stoppage in 2027.

There is plenty that can be said about all that and what a salary cap/floor and more robust revenue sharing can and can’t do in terms of increasing parity in the MLB, but there will be ample time to talk about that when baseball is on hold next year.

For the immediate future, the Dodgers’ acquisition of Skubal gives them a further leg up on their fellow World Series contenders for this fall. From the perspective of the Milwaukee Brewers, it feels very frustrating that they now face an even more daunting uphill battle in their quest for the first championship in franchise history.

Reports indicate that Milwaukee showed major interest in landing Skubal from Detroit, which showed a willingness from the front office to be more aggressive than usual at the trade deadline this time around.

The Brewers getting Skubal as a rental would have left them with an extremely formidable playoff rotation that would have made the thought of beating the Dodgers seem much less intimidating.

Granted, the holes in the offense and the lack of reliable power were always the more pressing needs for Milwaukee to address in order to give themselves a better shot at reversing their postseason fortunes, but a pitcher the caliber of Skubal could’ve obviously still been a difference-maker.

Hopefully in between the time this column was submitted and the trade deadline arrived, the Brewers made a meaningful trade or two to at least partially soften the blow of missing out on Skubal. And no matter what, this Milwaukee team still should be able to put up as good a fight as any against the Evil Empire.

However, the Dodgers are once again clearly the team to beat, and that task got that much more difficult after the Skubal trade.