San Diego Named A "Bold" Landing Spot For Skubal

There is bold - wearing a New York Yankees' jersey to a game at Fenway Park, for instance - and then there is 72-point, underlined, ALL CAPS, above-the-fold bold.

Let's say, something along the lines of the San Diego Padres' signing free-agent pitcher Tarik Skubal, probably the biggest, no-questions-asked rotation ace to hit MLB's open market since the Yankees signed Gerrit Cole to a nine-year contract for a tidy $325 million in December 2019.

According to a report posted by Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller on Monday, the Padres have the perfect opportunity to flaunt their boldness this offseason, specifically by signing Skubal away from the Los Angeles Dodgers to front their starting rotation.

Miller listed his seven bold predictions for the offseason, and while the New York Mets or Dodgers might be the assumed favorites to sign Skubal, he argues that the boldest play would be for the Padres to swoop and spirt him away to the East Village - and they really have no reason not to be so audacious.

"Why aren't the Padres on that list [of possible Skubal suitors]...especially under new ownership?" he wondered. "When Steve Cohen became the Mets' principal owner in 2020, their payroll pretty much immediately skyrocketed. Same goes for when Mark Walter and the Guggenheim group bought the Dodgers back in 2012. And one kind of has to assume the [Padres' new ownership] group headed by Kwanza Jones and José E. Feliciano is going to be aggressively trying to win right away."

There is an almost perfect-storm-like scenario that leads to Skubal heading to San Diego. The Padres will desperately need starting pitching going into 2027 with three 2026 starters - Walker Buehler, Robbie Ray and Casey Mize - free agents and No. 1 starter Michael King likely to opt out of the final two years of his contract.

That leaves Randy Vasquez and Nick Pivetta, if the Padres pick up Pivetta's $14-million option for next season. In the background are Joe Musgrove, who made one playoff appearance this month after two years lost to injury, and Yu Darvish, who will be 40 next August and hasn't pitched since Sept. 26, 2025, because of injury.

It would make sense for the Padres to take a big swing at Skubal because he is a true top-of-the-rotation, every-fifth-day ace, and there aren't many like him around anymore.

He won back-to-back AL Cy Young Awards for the Detroit Tigers in 2024 and 2025, going a combined 31-10 in those seasons with a cumulative 13.1 WAR and ERAs of 2.39 in 2024 and 2.21 in 2025, both of which led the AL. He had an MLB-best 228 strikeouts in 2024 and topped that with 241 in 2025, though Garrett Crochet of the Red Sox recorded 255 to lead the majors that season.

If there are any red flags, Skubal did miss the back half of the 2022 season and front half of 2023 following surgery on his left flexor tendon. When he did return, though, he went 7-3 with a 2.80 ERA in 80.1 innings with 102 strikeouts, and then, of course, followed that with consecutive Cy Youngs.

He also underwent surgery to remove a loose body from his left elbow on May 6, but thanks to an innovative new surgical procedure, what was expected to sideline him for up to three months saw him only miss 38 days - or around seven or eight starts - before returning to the mound on June 13. From that point on, he went 10-5 for the Tigers and Dodgers, and 1-1 in the playoffs before Los Angeles was eliminated in the NL Championship Series by the Milwaukee Brewers.

So, combine Skubal's talent with the Padres' starting-pitching needs and a new team of owners who might be very willing to flash the cash, and there is very little reason to think that Skubal shouldn't be in play for San Diego.

"Even though they do have a ton of money tied up in Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill through 2033 and beyond, they simply have to swing big for arguably the best pitcher in the sport today," Miller boldly reasoned.