Bleacher Report’s latest Dodgers-Tarik Skubal trade proposal is their wildest yet

Nothing is going to stop the Tarik Skubal trade rumors, no matter how close to Opening Day we get. The Los Angeles Dodgers will be among the chief landing spots bandied about, not because they actually need Skubal (though who couldn't use a two-time Cy Young winner), but because they are one of the few clubs with the hyped up prospects and financial might to acquire and retain the superstar lefty.

Throughout the offseason, there have been various iterations of mock trade packages to land Skubal in LA, all with different flavors depending on the direction it looked like the Detroit Tigers were heading at the time.

We've seen variants dangling Tyler Glasnow to help the Tigers continue to contend. We've seen more prospect-laden packages as the arbitration drama between Skubal and Detroit hit an all-time high.

The latest version, proposed by Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report, is one of the wildest yet, with Roki Sasaki, outfield prospect Zyhir Hope, and LA's top pitching prospect, Jackson Ferris, being shipped out to land Skubal.

Bleacher Report's latest proposed trade package to land Tarik Skubal with the Dodgers is the most outlandish one yet

This isn't to take a dig at Rymer, mostly because some events have transpired since his writing that have made this idea age like milk. Still, it seems like an awfully light deal considering that the New York Yankees were given the impression that it would cost "half their team" to acquire the ace.

According to MLB Pipeline, Hope isn't even the Dodgers' best outfield prospect in Tulsa. That honor goes to Josue De Paula. Ferris is coming off a good but not great year in Tulsa, where he posted a 3.86 ERA and walked too many batters with an 11.8% walk rate.

Sasaki is the only piece who could conceivably help the Tigers now, but given his regular-season performance in the rotation, his stock has taken a tumble from where it was when he first signed.

Most importantly, this doesn't work because Detroit's situation has changed. They signed Framber Valdez to a three-year, $115 million deal with the intention of showing Skubal they're in it to win it, while also having a succession plan in case they can't keep him around next winter.

The Valdez signing broke before the arbitration hearing, which Skubal won, indicating once and for all that the money they'd have to pay him this season wasn't a hurdle to making improvements to their ball club, after all.

To be fair, Rymer's article came out before either of these two pieces of news broke, so the context around his suggestion was different. That still doesn't mean it's an incredibly light package for arguably the game's best starter, and it certainly doesn't fit with what the Tigers are trying to do now.

Maybe Detroit falls out of the race early and listens on Skubal trades at the deadline, but for now, unless someone is paying a king's ransom for the southpaw, they aren't moving him. And the Dodgers don't need him. Any hypothetical trade they'd make for Skubal would be simply because they can, which makes it seem hard to find them ponying up what it would actually take to land the biggest fish the trade market has seen in some time.