Cubs prospect expert reveals what it would've taken to beat Dodgers for Tarik Skubal

For the first time in MLB history, a player who won the Cy Young and a player who won MVP each of the last two seasons will be teammates, as Tarik Skubal joins Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are aiming for a third-straight World Series championship.

So fun.

Non-Dodgers fans immediately dumped on the return the Tigers got in the deal, headlined by former Chicago Cubs prospect Zyhir Hope, who went to Los Angeles in the Michael Busch trade in Jan. 2024. Hope now heads to Detroit and is joined by a pair of pitching prospects in River Ryan and Brady Smith.

It's not that another team couldn't top this offer, but most of the league simply can't afford to mortgage top prospects for rentals without sacrificing long-term stability. Small market teams like Tampa Bay and Milwaukee need the cost control that top prospects and young players offer and then you have front offices, such as the Cubs, that rarely have interest in pushing their chips in on short-term plays.

But let's go through the thought exercise. What might a Cubs package have looked like if we're putting together something comparable to what the Dodgers sent to Detroit? According to Cubs prospect expert Lance Brozdowski, it may have looked something like this.

Cubs miss out, but Brewers are the biggest losers in Tarik Skubal trade

Hartshorn is the closest thing the Cubs have to Hope, while Ben Brown fills the role of Ryan and Caple, Smith. As highly-regarded as Hartshorn (or Pedro Ramirez) may be, neither are in the realm of Hope, who MLB Pipeline has as a top-25 prospect in the sport. Brown has shown flashes of brilliance, especially this season, but a recurring neck injury can't be overlooked, either.

It would be a steep price to pay for 2 1/2 months of any player, even Skubal. Given the number of controllable arms that are available, it seems safe to assume Jed Hoyer would rather use his powder in a deal that adds value beyond just 2026. The biggest losers in all of this might be the Brewers, who looked like the biggest threat to knock out the Dodgers in the NL and now face an even steeper uphill battle to dethrone the defending champs.

Slotting Skubal alongside NL Cy Young frontrunner Jacob Misiorowski would have made Milwaukee an ominous matchup come October. The southpaw would have obviously made any team better - Cubs included - but now, the front office's attention shifts to other pitching targets and the market should move quickly now that Skubal is off the board.

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