Ignore the noise, Dodgers trade for Tarik Skubal is great for baseball

The general public’s response to the Dodgers’ latest blockbuster deal was predictable.The trade for Tarik Skubal invited another round of complaints about how the Dodgers are buying championships.About how their broadcasting deal provides them with an unfair economic advantage over Major League Baseball’s 29 other teams.About how they’re ruining baseball.Good.Great, actually.The Skubal deal might evoke intensely negative feelings outside of Los Angeles and parts of Asia, but that’s the point.When was the last time a trade sparked this level of outrage?“People are passionate,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.The opposite of hatred is indifference, and if the Detroit Tigers had instead shipped Skubal to some podunk town like Milwaukee, most sports fans would have taken a couple of minutes to absorb the news and shifted their focus right back to NFL training camp.When people say they want competitive balance in baseball, what they’re really saying is that they want their team to have a chance.

But they don’t actually want parity.They don’t care about another random small-market team contending.Consider what happened in 2023.

The Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks played in the World Series, and it was the lowest-rated Fall Classic in history.Advocates of parity in baseball ignore this reality, which is that only a handful of teams drive conversation on a national scale.California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.

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Never miss a story Baseball is a regional sport.Teams and their players are popular in their respective markets but rarely outside of them.

What baseball player other than Shohei Ohtani has a national profile? Aaron Judge, maybe?Skubal might be the best pitcher in baseball, but he’s probably less famous than the average NFL backup quarterba...