Dave Roberts credited the Dodgers' scouting, front office, and player development staff for building the deep farm system necessary to pull off the blockbuster trade for ace pitcher Tarik Skubal.

A day after Los Angeles finalized the deal, the Dodgers manager pushed back on the idea that the front office had done anything underhanded to land him.

"It just seems like there's always blowback with us," Roberts said.

 "People are passionate. We feel good about it. There's nothing that we did that no one else couldn't have done. I just love our front office. We have to have the players to go pull something like this off, and we've still got, you know, arguably the top one or two or three farm systems in baseball. So it's a credit to a lot of people in this organization."

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said something similar. Rather than treating the deadline as a race against contenders, Friedman described the front office's approach as 'really aggressive'.

"I mean, I felt like we were being really aggressive and that we put some really talented players on the table, so I felt like that gave us a really good chance," he said, per Fox Sports.

"How good, I didn’t obviously have a sense for what other teams were doing. But, no." 

He also downplayed any idea that the Dodgers were simply trying to keep Skubal away from a rival, framing the move instead as an attempt to build the strongest possible 26-man roster for October for a three-peat.

"We’re doing what we can to put ourselves in the best position to have the strongest 26-man roster in October that we feel like gives us the best chance to win 11 games."

Los Angeles sent outfielder Zyhir Hope, a top-100 prospect, along with right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith to Detroit.

So, what's next for the Dodgers?

The Dodgers have spent much of the season working around injuries in their starting rotation.

Blake Snell has been out since May 15 after having loose bodies removed from his throwing elbow. Tyler Glasnow has been sidelined since May with lower back spasms. Shohei Ohtani is also not pitching with a knee injury.

Despite that, the Dodgers are tied for the best record in baseball (69-42).

When they are healthy, it leaves Skubal in a rotation that already has last year's World Series MVP, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, All-Star Justin Wrobleski, Roki Sasaki, and Emmet Sheehan.

Skubal had a 7-5 record with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts over 96.2 innings this year before the trade.

He already met his new teammates in the Dodgers' dugout on Sunday, during a series in which the Dodgers were swept at home by the Red Sox.

"I don't think I've felt this good after getting swept," Roberts said after the series loss. "So that's a silver lining, I guess."

Skubal is slated to make his Dodgers debut on Tuesday against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

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Written by

Md Saife Fida