How Dodgers aggressive pursuit of Tarik Skubal led to deadline stunner: Skubal or nothing

Where there’s smoke, they say, there’s usually fire.And on Saturday, as signs first publicly emerged that the Dodgers were making a move in the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes, the team’s behind-the-scenes talks with the Tigers were indeed reaching a fever pitch.A day earlier, the organizations had begun discussing a trade for Skubal — the American League’s reigning two-time Cy Young Award winner and this year’s top deadline target — in earnest for the first time.By Saturday evening, the Dodgers’ front office had grown so confident in its chances of landing the left-handed ace that president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman dropped a hint to manager Dave Roberts.“Right before the first pitch, I heard that it was pretty much done,” Roberts recounted on Sunday, as the rest of the baseball world was still digesting the Dodgers’ latest blockbuster acquisition.“There were obviously things that had to go on with medicals, so it wasn’t actually even finalized.

I just heard that it was pretty much close.”Over the next three hours, the Dodgers successfully pushed the deal across the finish line, ironing out a package that included three minor-league prospects — outfielder Zyhir Hope, and pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith — in exchange for the majors’ most dominant pitcher over the last three seasons. “Being on our side, you didn’t really know how long the process was gonna go, whether it was gonna go into Sunday, into Monday,” Friedman said.“But, obviously, we were of the mind to be aggressive and try to get a deal done.”A day later, the reverberations of the trade were still rattling throughout the baseball industry, most of which had never bought the Dodgers’ repeated Skubal-related bluffs in recent weeks.Though the team had insisted publicly and privately that it didn’t need Skubal, and that it wouldn’t make an all-in push to get the pending free agent at inflated deadline prices, rival teams always saw the Dodgers as ...