Tigers are a trash organization

I think there's a real possibility that the Dodgers were the only team to make a serious offer

i believe this and its pathetic

Pathetic because it's a foregone conclusion that he ends up there this winter anyway yes

If my team was in the conversation to get him and we gave up a real prospect just for him to bounce 3 months later to the team that just beat us and/or won the WS I'd be livid

dodgers going out with a bang lockout next year

teams who think they have a chance to win this year should be willing to get uncomfortable to add a b2b cy young winner to their post season run

Normally I would 100% agree but it's pretty clear that no smart front office thinks adding Skubal gives them the edge over the Dodgers considering how laughably beatable that offer is

No team thinking they have a real chance to win this year, even with Skubal, is the saddest part of this whole situation

I normally would never defend team owners in any league but MLB just has too many of them that aren't willing (or able) to spend and there's no way for the league to force them to sell. We're left with the Dodgers, who have an absurdly wealthy owner that has created an infinite money glitch via his cornering of the Japanese market and has gamed the contract system with his usage of heavy deferrals, competing with big league clubs that are forced to act as de facto farm systems since they can't afford to retain their homegrown talent

I've been a staunch opponent of the salary cap in baseball basically since I started watching but my opinion has shifted. This situation has gotten way out of hand and a hard cap with no deferrals is the only way to solve it

Sucks for the players but it's really the only way to move forward with a league that people still pay attention to and care about. 29 teams giving up before the trade deadline is the biggest black eye for any professional sports league in my lifetime

deferrals are a much bigger issue than a salary cap imo. the fact they signed ohtani and just deferred his entire contract was insane

I agree they're insanely stupid but I don't think them not being allowed would've stopped the Dodgers from signing Ohtani or really anyone else they've gotten since the Mookie trade. They do still have to put that deferred money in escrow, they don't get to keep it as cash on hand or whatever

its just the fact that it doesnt affect their current salary thresholds. I actually think the way the tax penalties are set up act as a soft cap and worked pretty effectively but the whole deferral thing is a massive loophole. the league just never expected a player like ohtani to just defer their entire contract

They're paying a record breaking tax bill even with all the deferrals

The penalties do work for teams that aren't playing with monopoly money, which is just about every team outside of the Dodgers and Mets and to a lesser extent the Yankees, Phillies, and Blue Jays

To your second point though I'm honestly surprised that the league didn't step in and stop Ohtani from deferring 680 million dollars. It's incredible that they let the highest profile player in the sport get away with setting that precedent on behalf of the richest team in the league

the point being tho is that they'd reach that number a lot sooner if they couldnt defer all that ohtani money

I agree, I'm just not convinced it would be a deterrent for them. I'm of the opinion that the only way to prevent them from doing what they're doing is to implement a hard cap and even then I'm not entirely sure they won't just pay an exorbitant tax bill for going over that as well, at least for as long as they have Ohtani in his prime