If not for an impending lockout, Tarik Skubal’s free agency would have every headline in baseball this offseason.
The two-time Cy Young Award winner is set up to sign a record-breaking contract in the coming weeks, and according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Skubal wants to not only get paid, but he wants a lengthy deal.
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“Certainly the Dodgers will be in the mix on Skubal, but to what extent is unclear,” wrote Passan on Wednesday. “Unlike Kyle Tucker last offseason, Skubal has no interest in a shorter-term, higher-dollar deal, which could disadvantage the Dodgers when contending with the New York Mets (or the San Diego Padres or Toronto Blue Jays).”
The Dodgers have excelled at signing players to deals with deferred money or short deals with high total value. However, it’s not like they cannot dish out longer contracts. They did so for Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
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However, with everything going on with Mark Walter outside of baseball right now, it may be a little more difficult for them to dish out a double-digit-year deal. However, it’s not impossible.
At the end of the day, they are still the Dodgers and should be able to compete with anyone financially. However, they are coming off a sweep in the National League Championship Series in which their offense disappeared. They won back-to-back World Series with weaker rotations than the one they trotted out in October this year, and they need to evaluate if spending big on Skubal is really what they need.
“He was awesome to get to know,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said on Tuesday, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “He fit in great into the clubhouse. Obviously, we know what kind of pitcher he is. So, for us, it’s understanding what this all looks like, as far as what does our team need? What does the contract look like? Where does he end up? I don’t know.”
The Dodgers may not think it’s the best idea to sign Skubal to a long-term deal, and if that’s what he desires, the Dodgers will really have to hope the allure of winning can get him to change his mind.
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