LOS ANGELES — While Yoshinobu Yamamoto was on the mound on Saturday night, the Dodgers’ front office was working hard behind the scenes to add another ace to their rotation.
Yamamoto may have taken the loss as the Dodgers fell, 3-2, to the Red Sox at Dodger Stadium, but the team was victorious off the field, agreeing to acquire two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Tigers in a blockbuster ahead of Monday’s Trade Deadline.
“I was hearing some rumors about that,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda after allowing three runs in eight innings. “But then it actually happened, and I’m pretty surprised.”
The Dodgers felt that they had four ace-caliber arms in last year’s postseason rotation. This year, as they go for a three-peat, they have five.
Yamamoto, the reigning World Series MVP who led the Dodgers’ stacked rotation through their run to back-to-back titles last year, is the only member of last year’s postseason starting four who is actively pitching for L.A. Blake Snell (surgery to remove loose bodies from his left elbow) is one rehab start away from returning. Tyler Glasnow (lower back spasms) is about to begin a rehab assignment, with four Minor League starts ahead of him. And the timeline for Shohei Ohtani (left knee soreness) remains unclear, though he’s expected to return to pitching by season’s end.
At full strength, the Dodgers’ six-man rotation in the regular season figures to include Yamamoto, Skubal, Snell, Ohtani, Glasnow and one of Roki Sasaki, Justin Wrobleski or Emmet Sheehan. In the postseason, when that group is whittled down to four, that means Wrobleski, Glasnow, Sasaki and Sheehan could all be options for the bullpen, with the latter three potentially giving L.A. some much-needed reinforcements from the right-hand side.
With Skubal solidifying the rotation, there is also less urgency for Ohtani to return to the mound, although he and the Dodgers expect him to be able to play to his full two-way capabilities when the games matter most. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has maintained that Ohtani’s absence from the rotation has not created an “acute need.”
“We’re confident he’s going to come back again,” Friedman told reporters earlier in the week. “If there was something structural, then we would be much more concerned. The fact that there’s not, and the fact that it does keep improving, suggests that we’re on the right path, and we feel very confident he’ll be back.”
Whether the Dodgers have four aces or five at their disposal when the calendar flips to October, they are well equipped for their three-peat bid, with additional time to continue fine-tuning their roster leading up to Monday’s 3 p.m. PT Trade Deadline.
Like in the offseason, when they downplayed expectations but still ended up signing top free agents Edwin Díaz and Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers could not resist the opportunity to make a run at acquiring the best player available at this year’s Deadline. The back-to-back champions look to make moves that move the needle, and this was the ultimate needle-mover.
“There just aren’t that many star-level players in the game,” Friedman said, “and any time one is available, we’re always going to participate in those conversations.”
