The pursuit for Tarik Skubal began approximately nine months ago.
At Major League Baseball’s GM meetings in early November, the Los Angeles Dodgers made it known that they wanted to be involved in the Skubal sweepstakes if the Detroit Tigers were going to trade the two-time Cy Young winner.
But on the Saturday that Skubal was sent to LA, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman wasn’t confident a deal would be made until 90 minutes before the transaction happened.
The Dodgers executive recounted how the trade for Skubal unfolded.
“We weren’t sure what they were going to do last offseason, but we wanted to be factored in. So it started back then. This July, there was definitely a lot of conversations because we have a lot of really talented players. So, there’s just a lot of discussions back and forth,” Friedman said on the Starkville podcast.
“I woke up Saturday morning not expecting that the deal would go down that day. I had a conversation with [Detroit president of baseball operations] Scott [Harris] that morning and felt like we had made some progress. Later on that day in the afternoon, we had another conversation where it became a little bit more clear that this thing might wrap up today, tonight.
“And then a follow up around 4 p.m. Pacific, where I was like this thing is definitely wrapping tonight. Ninety minutes later is when we found out we got him.”
The Dodgers may have landed Skubal, but LA has a tall task ahead of them in reclaiming the top spot in the National League in order to secure a first round playoff bye.
The back-to-back World Series champions reclaimed the top-two spot with a 3-1 win victory over the Milwaukee Brewers Friday night, which fans hope is a sign that the Dodgers are trending in the right direction.
