Andrew Friedman worked his magic again with Tarik Skubal steal and now Dodgers have no excuses
Andrew Friedman should have worn a ski mask to work Saturday.Because he was about to commit a robbery.The Dodgers president of baseball operations somehow convinced the Tigers to part ways with two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal for three good-but-not-great minor leaguers.The baseball industry has come to overvalue prospects, and Friedman used that to his advantage, exchanging three players who didn’t have real futures in his organization for a ticket to the World Series.“Andrew worked his magic again,” one Dodgers executive said.With a third consecutive World Series championship at stake, the Dodgers could have justified paying an exorbitant bounty for Skubal.But Friedman managed to strike a deal that didn’t include the Dodgers’ most-prized outfield prospects.He didn’t have to give up All-Star Justin Wrobleski.
He didn’t even have to trade Emmet Sheehan, who probably won’t make the postseason roster.Friedman has done his part. Now, it’s up to the players to do theirs.They will have absolutely no excuses.The most loaded roster in modern baseball has become even more complete.The elements are in place for another title run.The Dodgers’ playoff rotation will be led by a potentially historic 1-2 pairing of Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who was the most valuable player of the World Series last year.Yamamoto has spoken to Skubal at All-Star Games and found him to be “very friendly.”“I think he’s the No.
1 pitcher,” Yamamoto said in Japanese, “so I’ll desperately give everything I have while being positively influenced by him.”The Dodgers used a four-man rotation in October last season, and if they do so again this time around, behind Yamamoto and Skubal will be two of their three other Cy Young-caliber pitchers.That means that if Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow are all available, one of them will have to move into a relief role.As it was, Wrobleski and Roki Sasaki already looked as if they would end up in the ...