ORLANDO, Fla. — The Los Angeles Dodgers downplayed the need to make a big splash in free agency. They flinched at forfeiting draft picks for a free agent with a qualifying offer. Then, they acted in their usual do-as-they-damn-please fashion, agreeing Tuesday with free-agent reliever Edwin Díaz on a three-year contract, valued at $69 million before deferrals.
As baseball enters the final season of its collective-bargaining agreement, what’s to stop the Dodgers from doing more in pursuit of a third straight World Series title?
The Dodgers know the next collective bargaining agreement will likely include increased financial restrictions, with or without a salary cap. So, why not lose two more draft picks to sign free-agent outfielder Kyle Tucker? Why not pursue a trade for Detroit Tigers left-hander Tarik Skubal?
Why not just keep going?
To sign Díaz, the Dodgers were willing to sacrifice two draft picks, their second- and fifth-highest selections in 2026, plus $1 million in international bonus pool space. Signing Tucker would cost them their third- and sixth-highest picks, a seemingly minor impediment. The bigger issue with the Dodgers in a Tucker pursuit would be getting him at their price.
Los Angeles is unlikely to offer Tucker a six- or seven-year deal, according to a person briefed on the team’s plans. The club, however, would entertain a shorter three-to-four-year deal with a high annual average value, similar to what Alex Bregman landed last spring when he signed a three-year, $120 million contract with the Boston Red Sox.
Bregman declined a six-year, $171.5 million deal with the Detroit Tigers and a four-year, $120 million deal from the Chicago Cubs to take the higher average annual value with Boston, then opted out after one year. The Dodgers have refrained from including opt-outs in free-agent signings, but might be inclined to reconsider that position.
Tarik Skubal would command a mammoth return, and the Dodgers seem set with starters, but Los Angeles has young pitching depth to offer. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Tucker, generally reserved, might be better suited for a low-key environment. He could accomplish that by going to a lesser market, but with the Dodgers, he would be perhaps only the team’s fifth or sixth biggest star.
“I would say we definitely can,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Tuesday evening, when asked if the Dodgers could sign another free agent. “Whether that makes the most sense within the timing of our roster — there are so many factors that go into it, and any decision you make has a future cost. Weighing that — yes, we can. How likely it is is probably another question.”
Skubal is probably even less likely, considering the return the Tigers would want for their back-to-back American League Cy Young winner, even though he is under club control for only one more season.
The Dodgers don’t particularly need Skubal. Their rotation, at first glance, appears to be an embarrassment of riches, particularly with young pitchers Gavin Stone, River Ryan and Kyle Hurt set to return from injuries.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Blake Snell, however, carried heavy workloads in the postseason. Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow and Roki Sasaki might face innings restrictions in one form or another. Emmet Sheehan emerged last season as an intriguing alternative, as did Justin Wrobleski. Imagine, though, if the Dodgers chose to reduce their surplus, consolidate their options and add Skubal to their mix.
The Dodgers certainly possess the depth to offer one or two young pitchers to the Tigers for Skubal, plus others from their deep farm system. Such players can help balance the team’s payroll, but the Dodgers probably will not have enough room on their roster for all of them.
After all, money, as the Dodgers repeatedly shown, is no object.
“We are in a really strong position right now, financially, and our ownership group has been incredibly supportive of pouring that back into our team and that partnership with our fans,” Friedman said. “As we look at things, if we were on a really tight budget, we probably wouldn’t allocate in the same way. But having more resources, it allows us to be a little bit more aggressive.”
As owner Mark Walter put it after his team’s second straight World Series title: “(The front office) makes all the decisions. I just tell them yes.”
Skubal’s projected $17.8 million salary in arbitration would be a relative pittance for a team that, with the addition of Díaz, increased its luxury-tax payroll of $339 million, according to Fangraphs. Signing Skubal to an extension would likely be near-impossible when he is so close to free agency and is represented by Scott Boras, but the Dodgers could worry about that later.
Per multiple league sources, Díaz’s deal materialized quickly over the course of a few days. The same could happen for a potential Tucker signing or Skubal trade. As the Díaz deal demonstrated anew, nothing could be ruled out when the Dodgers are involved.
After Los Angeles won the National League Championship Series, manager Dave Roberts addressed criticism of the team’s high payroll by saying, “Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball.”
The Dodgers got those four wins, and they still aren’t done.
