New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman revealed that they stopped pursuing Tarik Skubal because the Detroit Tigers set an astronomical asking price and demanded a specific top prospect that New York refused to include.

The Tigers eventually sent Skubal to the Los Angeles Dodgers as the biggest move of the trade deadline.

"They set a high price, and we were unable to get them off of what they said might work," Cashman said, according to SNY Yankees on X.

"They went silent after they got what they were looking for, and then they made that decision. We feel like we didn't really match up in the end. We weren't able to compete at that level."

The high price Detroit was asking was believed to be George Lombard Jr., son of Tigers' bench coach George Lombard Sr.

It had been assumed for months that if the Yankees had one truly untouchable prospect at this year's deadline, it was Lombard Jr.

Last November, Cashman said his glove is already ready for the big leagues. He was promoted to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in late April and entered the deadline hitting .268/.405/.440 with an .845 OPS, six home runs and 10 steals across 56 games at the highest level of the minor league.

In the recent negotiation with Detroit, Cashman never said Lombard Jr. by name, but he didn't need to.

“They did have some asks our way that we were unwilling to do,” Cashman added.

“But it was a very specific ask and a certain player — and a player we weren’t willing to play with in that arena despite Tarik Skubal, despite how good of a pitcher he is.”

None of it was about doubting Skubal's talent

The back-to-back American League Cy Young winner has a 2.79 ERA with 116 strikeouts over 96 2/3 innings this season. It was even after missing six weeks recovering from elbow surgery.

He is also a free agent after the season, which made the Tigers’ ask even harder to swallow for New York.

“It’s another two months to go plus the postseason,” Cashman said, per the Athletics.

“And that made it more difficult to be comfortable for us giving up the ask that was going to go their way despite how great he was..... But because of how great he is, we definitely made our phone calls and I talked to (president of baseball operations Scott Harris) several times about it."

In the end, the Dodgers got Skubal for a three-player package: outfielder Zyhir Hope, right-hander River Ryan, and right-hander Brady Smith.

Hope is the biggest name in the return, a high-end prospect who has hit .293 with 23 homers, 87 RBIs, and 18 steals at Double-A Tulsa.

Ryan shows front-of-rotation stuff in his 2024 debut before undergoing Tommy John surgery. And Smith is only 21 years old with a high upside, though none of the three ranked among the Dodgers' top five prospects.

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Written by

Md Saife Fida