When the Los Angeles Dodgers landed Tarik Skubal at the 2026 trade deadline, baseball's usual chorus fired up on cue: the Dodgers are ruining the sport.
The newest ace in Dodger blue, however, isn't buying it.
Speaking to the media Monday while the Dodgers were on the road, Skubal had a message for everyone: Don't blame Los Angeles for trying to win.
DODGERS REPORTEDLY ACQUIRE ACE TARIK SKUBAL FROM TIGERS IN TRADE THAT STIRS UP MLB WORLD
"Every team could trade for me," Skubal said.
"I don't sympathize with people that blame the Dodgers for anything they've done. It's a winning org... I really don't sympathize with people that are complaining because the Dodgers do all the right things."
Fresh off back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards in 2024 and 2025, the elite left-hander arrives in Los Angeles with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts through 16 starts this season.
After watching Sunday's game from the Dodger Stadium dugout in his new threads, Skubal is slated to make his Dodgers debut Tuesday at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs. He knows what winning looks like, and he sees nothing wrong with the Dodgers' approach.
Skubal's comments get to the heart of one of baseball's most predictable debates. Every time the Dodgers land another star, the calls for a hard salary cap start all over again. But that's treating a salary cap like a cure for problems it can't actually solve.
Cheering for a salary cap is an odd hill to die on.
MLB'S SALARY CAP PROPOSAL WON'T FIX THE LEAGUE'S NON-EXISTENT COMPETITIVE BALANCE PROBLEMS
Outside of sports, consumers don't root for companies to spend less or workers to earn less. Nobody begs Hollywood studios to cut blockbuster movie budgets so smaller productions have a better shot at the box office. Yet in baseball, fans routinely side with billionaire owners and argue for limits on player salaries in the name of "fairness."
It doesn't hold up.
A salary cap doesn't magically turn struggling franchises into smart ones. It doesn't help them draft better, develop talent, or build winning cultures. What it does is give tight-fisted ownership groups another excuse to cash revenue-sharing checks while avoiding the hard work of building a legitimate contender.
As Skubal pointed out, the Dodgers didn't exploit some secret loophole to land him.
Every other team had the same opportunity. Los Angeles drafted well, developed valuable trade chips and made winning the priority. Baseball should not punish the Dodgers; the rest of the league should try to emulate them, frankly.
Instead of begging MLB to handicap organizational excellence, rival fans should demand more from their own front offices.
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