ESPN's Jeff Passan can't get past Tarik Skubal trade from Tigers to Dodgers

The MLB fanbase might spend most of July hoping that the Detroit Tigers trade Tarik Skubal anywhere other than the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And then they might simply trade him to the Dodgers anyway.

That's where ESPN's Jeff Passan has fallen on the matter in a new article on Thursday. He writes that Skubal is both the "best match" and the "dream match" for the Dodgers before the deadline -- roles that he was giving to two different players for every other team he analyzed.

The Skubal thing just feels a bit inevitable at this point.

"Sorry," Passan begins his blurb. "Of all the teams to get by far the best player on the market, did it really have to be the two-time defending champions that feature the most talented player in the game's history and a payroll that dwarfs almost every other team? Maybe not, but there are two realities at play here: The Dodgers have the sort of farm system Detroit would love to raid, and adding Skubal to a rotation that includes Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell would make them damn near unassailable."

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Frankly, this is what the Dodgers have done in recent years. They've built a team that looks really hard to beat, and then they've made it even better.

"Other teams need Skubal more, certainly, but that's of little concern to the Dodgers," Passan writes. "They've positioned themselves, as much through their astute dealings as their financial advantages, to bully the game. So while they could nibble around the margins like they did at the last deadline, the opportunity to not only add Skubal to their rotation but prevent the chance of having to face him in a crucial game is tantalizing."

Skubal's contract is up at the end of the season, so the Dodgers (like every other team) have to consider if they have a longer-term future with him.

But the club going for the three-peat isn't likely to hold back.

"Is it enough to part with a big league-ready arm and a top outfield prospect?" Passan wonders. "The Dodgers don't necessarily like making deals with negative expected value in their model, but if the price for another banner amounts to a rounding error for a franchise generating more than a billion dollars in revenue annually, so be it."

It's not a done deal, but Skubal to the Dodgers sure feels quite likely at this point.

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