Tarik Skubal trade grades: Who won Dodgers and Tigers deal?

It finally happened! Tarik Skubal — the biggest name on the market at the 2026 MLB trade deadline — has been dealt by the Detroit Tigers, who didn’t give the pitcher the massive contract extension he was seeking. And with the Tigers on the fringes of contention, the decision seemed obvious: They had to trade him, and of course the return was going to be pretty good.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were seemingly the prime landing spot per rumors, and with their deep farm system, it was a perfect match, especially given that they needed a starter if they wanted to contend in October.

So who won this deal? Let’s break it down with the details for each side and hand out some grades.

Dodgers get: LHP Tarik Skubal

Tigers get: RHP River Ryan, OF Zyhir Hope and RHP Brady Smith

The rich keep getting richer. The Dodgers had a lot of questions about their rotation with Ohtani’s health struggles as of late. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is obviously amazing, but then will Tyler Glasnow and Blake Snell be fully ready when they return from injury?

Enter Skubal. He’ll take the ace role, giving the Dodgers a scary group come the playoffs. And even giving up a pair of two top-100 prospects in Ryan and Hope still leaves them with other big names in the minors like Eduardo Quintero and Emil Morales. GRADE: A

Sigh. What can you do here? Skubal wasn’t going to fetch a huge price given that he’s basically a rental until someone hands the two-time Cy Young winner a massive contract. That said, the Tigers did OK here. Hope is ranked 25th on MLB’s top 100 prospect list and Ryan is 68th. In terms of minor league talent, OK, fine. But with the Tigers looking like a young upstart team last year, fans will have questions about getting back major league-level arms or bats. Ultimately, the Tigers had no choice here, which makes this a rougher deal. GRADE: B-

This article originally appeared on For The Win: Tarik Skubal trade grades: Who won Dodgers and Tigers deal?