Friedman, Roberts push back on narrative Dodgers ruining baseball - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — Talks between the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers around Tarik Skubal began to pick up Friday and turned increasingly more aggressive by Saturday afternoon. Moments before the Dodgers' 6:10 p.m. PT first pitch, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman walked into manager Dave Roberts' office and told him the deal, barring a medical hiccup, was essentially done.

News — that the Dodgers were acquiring Skubal for a three-prospect package consisting of outfielder Zhyir Hope, and starting pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith — broke later that night. It didn't take long for the outrage to circulate.

Rival scouts, executives and players privately panned the Tigers' return, wondering why it didn't take more to land Skubal, and why teams like the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays didn't step up to prevent him from going to the Dodgers. Fans took to social media to lament the Dodgers landing another superstar, tying their vast resources to Major League Baseball's push for a salary cap. The Dodgers were once again at the center of outrage about the sport's economics. It's a position they've grown accustomed to.

«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.»

Roberts spoke with Skubal over the phone late Saturday night, and Skubal joined his new Dodgers teammates in the dugout for Sunday's series finale against the Boston Red