MLB Trade Deadline Insights: Dodgers, Rutschman & More!

The trade deadline is always so exciting because you don't know who is going to get traded, and there's like this moment of, oh my gosh, are we going to see X, Y, and Z get traded? And when the top name does get traded, that is huge. There's really nothing that can compare to Tarek Skubal going from the Tigers as the two-time defending American League champion to go to the Dodgers, where he will instantly be at the top of the rotation for one of the greatest rotations on paper that we have ever seen constructed in Major League Baseball. It is truly ridiculous what the Dodgers have right now, and that is without Ohtani pitching. If Ohtani comes back and pitches, it's even more ridiculous. But next year and the year after, and they're probably going to grab Skubal for five to seven years after this. This team is already deferring $1.1 billion. That's the number that's got everybody up in arms. They're going to be deferring probably even more because you've got to assume the Skubal deal will be under the current collective bargaining agreement, not the new one, whatever the new one will be, if we even get a new one coming up this winter. So there'll be even more money deferred. They're doing what you should do when you have the advantage. This show is called pushing the odds. If you know poker, what does pushing the odds mean? It means that when you have the advantage, when you have the mathematical advantage over your opponent, you should push it. You should push the odds. The Dodgers are pushing the odds. They have the money advantage. They have the fan base advantage. They have the talent advantage. And so they are pushing their chips to the middle of the table and saying, go for it. They also have a war chest of prospects to go and grab a hold of and utilize. And so that's the biggest trade of the trade deadline. Skubal going to the Dodgers is not going to be topped. But behind it, Adelaide Rushman going to the Red Sox is a huge deal on a variety of different fronts. Let's take it from the Orioles perspective for a second. This is a 1.1 guy. Round one, pick one. Rushman was the top pick in the 2019 draft. He was the major linchpin. He was the focal point. He was the guy that helped this Orioles franchise win the division, make the playoffs in 2023 and 2024. This was an Orioles team that looked like they were on the come up, that they were going to be a team. Red Sox, Yankees, Orioles, right? Or Blue Jays, Yankees, Orioles. You thought this team had some faces, some players, some pieces that were going to be there for a long time. Rushman's been hurt a lot over the last three years. He's a catcher. Catchers get beat up. Their fingers break. They get bumps and bruises and they're sore. Look, I was a catcher coming up. I don't think I ever caught anyone faster than 85 miles per hour, but it hurts. Playing catcher hurts. You play for 150 games or so, you're going to have knee problems, wrist problems. You're going to have arm problems.