Beyond the City of Angels, baseball fans across the globe groaned at the very thought of Tarik Skubal, a two-time Cy Young Award winner at the age of 29, landing with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now that it's become a reality, the hope that any team will get past them in the postseason is diminishing, and that includes the league-leading Milwaukee Brewers.
It seemed as though the Brewers had the clearest path to trading for Skubal with one of the best farm systems in baseball and a boatload of young talent currently under team control. Five of the top 100 prospects in the minor leagues are part of the Brewers' farm system, with plenty more fascinating young talents throughout the organization. But if the reporting is true, the Detroit Tigers were playing hardball with Milwaukee's front office, asking for far more than what they got from the Dodgers.
Now, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Los Angeles, the winners of three World Series pennants in the last six seasons, are loaded up for yet another postseason run, coming off a year in which they swept Milwaukee in the NLCS. Although the Brewers have learned quite a bit from that experience and are back with a vengeance this season, the looming threat of another Dodgers postseason matchup has made the possibility far more complicated.
If the Brewers don't make a deal at the MLB Trade Deadline, they might not have a chance to chase the Dodgers anymore.
Even with one of the best defensive lineups in baseball and the best young pitching core in the MLB, it's starting to feel like there's too much star power on the Dodgers for Milwaukee to contend. With that said, the story is not written yet. Teams get cold all the time, and while the Dodgers are still firmly in the driver's seat in terms of their odds to win the World Series, that doesn't mean the Brewers aren't capable of a Cinderella story.
However, after the Tarik Skubal trade saga ended exactly how they hoped it wouldn't, it feels like Milwaukee needs to be more aggressive than it's used to at the MLB Trade Deadline to stand a chance. Acquiring a veteran starter to buoy the rotation would do dividends for a team fighting for its life to build the right habits for a historic Playoff run.
And while it's unlikely they'll get a player of Skubal's caliber, they can get close enough with some of the right options. If the Minnesota Twins are willing to part with starter Joe Ryan, he'd be a great fit in Milwaukee because of his elite six-pitch mix and deceptive pitching style. They could also chase after another Tigers starter in Casey Mize, or any number of veterans flying under the radar, like José Soriano, Reid Detmers, or Kevin Gausman.
With only one day left to figure it out, it's time for Milwaukee to own up to that aggressive approach it's signalling and go make a trade that will actually shake up this roster in a meaningful way. Otherwise, we might look back at the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline as the moment that sealed their fate.
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