7. Philadelphia Phillies (57-51)
Jeff Passan casually dropped the Phillies as a potential player for Skubal in the video referenced way back in the intro. It seems unlikely, as Dave Dombrowski should be squarely focused on right-handed hitters and leverage relievers.
Dombrowski does like his blockbuster trades, though, and one for Skubal is as big as they get this summer. And if his thinking was that nobody wants to face Skubal and Cristopher Sánchez and Zack Wheeler in October, he wouldn’t be wrong.
6. Los Angeles Dodgers (67-40)
Look, nobody is going to stop connecting the Dodgers to Skubal until the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. But the reality is that their starters lead the majors with a 3.36 ERA, and that’s with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow still working back from injuries.
But when the task at hand is winning a third straight World Series title, do you really want to leave anything to chance? That’s a question for Andrew Friedman, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he determined a Skubal trade to be worth emptying his No. 1-ranked farm system.
5. New York Yankees (61-46)
What the Yankees need first and foremost is for Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger to be healthy by the time October arrives. After that, they definitely need another leverage arm and another right-handed bat.
As with the Phillies and Dodgers, though, a Skubal trade shouldn’t be ruled out just on the grounds that it’s the biggest splash the Yankees can make. And even relative to Cam Schlittler, Gerrit Cole and Max Fried, he’d be New York’s Game 1 starter in October.
