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The last time I yelled, “YEAH, I GET IT!” this loudly at hearing a metaphor, I was a middle-aged dad watching Toy Story 3.
Plus: A Rangers-Angels trade, drama in Philadelphia and Ken Rosenthal examines how Shohei Ohtani’s health could impact Monday’s trade deadline. I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!
Beginning of the End: Introducing the post-Skubal Tigers?
On Tuesday, Ken reported that one potential path for the Tigers at the trade deadline would be “to acquire a controllable starting pitcher who would replace (Tarik) Skubal in their rotation, along with multiple prospects. That way, the Tigers possibly could remain in contention while ensuring they receive more than the draft pick they would get if they kept Skubal and he left as a free agent.”
And as the 51-58 Tigers have slid, that future — the one in which they say goodbye to baseball’s best ace at the trade deadline — seems more and more inevitable.
So, last night might have been Skubal’s final start for Detroit. He opened the game with his 1,000th strikeout, and left to a standing ovation.
The Tigers led the Orioles 7-1 with two on and two outs in the seventh inning, and with a win, they would overtake Baltimore in the tightly populated encampment of teams just beneath the AL wild-card timber line.
Then came the avalanche.
After Skubal left, the Tigers collapsed, losing 10-9 in 12 innings. If I may slightly alter a favorite quote from “Tommy Boy (1995)”:
One game does not an epitaph make, but as inflection points go, this one had all the timbre of a guttural wheeze after being kicked in the sternum.
It was always going to be a tall task to climb out of the hole that injuries and underperformance put the Tigers in during the first three months of the season. But they battled valiantly in June and July to compile a record that would justify not trading Skubal.
There was always an invisible deadline, though — one they probably passed a week ago — by which Detroit had to win every game if it wanted the standings to align with its Skubal-keeping hopes.
Instead, the Tigers have lost four of their last five. Yesterday, devastating as it was, probably wasn’t the game that sealed Skubal’s farewell. Instead, it felt like a heavy-handed allegory for a future that was already set in motion.
More Skubal: Count the Cubs among his potential suitors.
More Tigers: The team’s promoting top prospect Max Clark to make his big-league debut. The 21-year-old ranks 13th among Keith Law’s updated top prospects.
More outdated movie quotes: Let’s go back to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)” for the Padres, because “They’re not dead!” and, in fact, “They feeeeel happyyyyy!”
Middle Relief: Could Ohtani’s injuries sway a Skubal move?
Today, Ken examines how the aches and pains of one Shohei Ohtani could impact the Dodgers’ strategy at this year’s trade deadline. Here’s an excerpt.
If there is even a .0001 percent chance that Ohtani will not pitch again this season, the chances of the Dodgers admitting it are about the same as a massive snowstorm hitting Miami.
The trade deadline is Monday. The Dodgers, back-to-back World Series champions and perennial major-league leaders in sandbagging, are not going to compromise their leverage if they intend to pursue a starting pitcher, namely back-to-back AL Cy Young winner Skubal.
The Dodgers mostly implement their “hang around the backboard” strategy in free agency, masking their intentions until signing a Kyle Tucker or some other flavor of the month. With Ohtani, they might simply be employing another of their trademark practices, slow-playing an injured player to ensure he is ready for October.
Ohtani said Tuesday night that both his left knee and right biceps are not 100 percent. The Dodgers are concerned that if he rushes back to the mound too quickly, he might compensate for his knee and jeopardize his arm. Any doubts beyond that, if they exist, the Dodgers are not about to share.
In any case, the implications of Ohtani’s injuries extend beyond the deadline. To the postseason. To awards season. Perhaps to the rest of his career.
Ohtani’s chances of winning his first Cy Young Award, never all that great to begin with, are pretty much kaput. His stranglehold on a third straight MVP and fifth in six years no longer is guaranteed. And if at 32 he is struggling to withstand the rigors of both pitching and hitting, his ability to continue dazzling us as a two-way superstar might not be guaranteed, either.
All those discussions are for another time.
The deadline is five days away.
For weeks now, all we’ve heard from the Dodgers is talk about how their pitching cavalry is returning, how they’re eager to make prospect-for-prospect trades, how they might be more likely to sell than buy.
Sure. OK. And if the Tigers are willing to deal Skubal, at a time when Ohtani is dealing with two different ailments that have kept him off the mound since July 3, the Dodgers are just going to point to their $400 million payroll and say, “Nah, we’re good?”
For the rest of Ken’s story, click here.
More from Ken: His latest notes column starts with the Rangers-Angels trade we’re discussing below, and touches on the Orioles, Rockies, Reds and Blue Jays.
Deadline SZN: Telling trade for Angels front office
OK, OK, OK — now trade-deadline season has kicked off, right? Eh, maybe. The Rangers (55-53) and Angels (42-67) matched up on an AL West intra-division swap last night:
Rangers get: C Logan O’Hoppe, RHP Chase Silseth
Angels get: 19-year-old INF Angel Arredondo
O’Hoppe is the recognizable name, but his OPS has worsened every season since his rookie year in 2023, when he was an exciting 23-year-old catcher with a .796 OPS. It dropped to .712 in 2024, .629 last year and .565 thus far in 2026.
Maybe he’ll figure it out in the Rangers’ system, but it won’t be in the big leagues just yet: O’Hoppe was immediately optioned to Triple A.
Silseth, then, is the real news for Texas. He’s not overwhelming, but is a very sensible upgrade for a Rangers bullpen that has already been a bit better of late. He’s also under team control for four more years. O’Hoppe has two years of arbitration left before free agency, but could always be non-tendered this winter if things don’t improve.
In return, the Angels got Arredondo, who wasn’t on any top prospect lists. As part of our Trade Grades, Keith Law’s assessment was as follows: “Best case scenario, he’s a utility infielder, but probably not.”
For the Angels, this was largely about cutting bait with O’Hoppe. More importantly, it signals that interim GM John Mozeliak is breaking the tradition of those who came before him in Anaheim and actually selling at the deadline when the circumstances call for it.
More Angels: They also released Alek Manoah, who had been struggling in Triple A.
More trade deadline:
Drama: Harper and Dombrowski’s feud continues
This quarrel began months ago, but things got a little more tense in Philadelphia on Tuesday when Bryce Harper had this to say about the deadline:
“I think we need some help,” Harper said. “You know? But I think we’ve proved pretty much all year we’ve done a pretty good job. But anytime you can get some help in here and reinforcements, I think it helps.”
Benign comments, in a vacuum. However — no matter how many hear otherwise from Phillies fans — Citizens Bank Park is not a vacuum. The context, from Matt Gelb’s latest:
“Neither Harper nor (president of baseball operations Dave) Dombrowski, two powerful men with huge egos, particularly cares for the other.”
The “cold war” started this spring, when Dombrowski publicly questioned whether or not Harper could still be an elite player. Harper took offense at the public question, and even wore a shirt about it. So when it’s Harper making comments about what the front office should do, it lands differently.
Things seemed to escalate further yesterday when interim manager Don Mattingly defended Dombrowski’s record and offered some pointed words toward Harper, including:
“Guys want to be GMs without a real understanding of where the organization is, exactly where this thing goes. Not only this year, but moving forward. Players like being GMs and making calls and spending other people’s money. So I just let it go at that.”
That’s a stark contrast from the good vibes the Phillies rode into July after going 36-19 in May and June. They’re 9-14 this month, and Harper’s slump hasn’t helped: He entered play last night hitting .165 (.611 OPS) for the month.
Gelb dives deep into all of it here.
Handshakes and High Fives
Spencer Nusbaum breaks down a complicated deadline in D.C., while Barry Svrluga says the Nats shouldn’t trade starting pitcher Foster Griffin.
Answering yesterday’s question: It appears Boston is re-engaging the infielder market after new arrival Curtis Mead’s broken wrist. Jen McCaffrey lists the possible targets.
Hat tip to Sam Blum for the weirdest stat I’ve seen all month: Jordan Romano leads both the Angels and Rockies in saves this year. He has eight saves … total.
“I can fix him!” Not a great dating strategy, but will it work for teams still interested in Freddy Peralta?
Most-clicked in our last Windup: Our Trade Urgency Index 3.0. Might I interest you in the equivalent version of our Trade Deadline Big Board, fresh off the presses?
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