Brewers owner takes weak parting shot at Dodgers over Tarik Skubal trade

The Milwaukee Brewers certainly earned their bragging rights over the Los Angeles Dodgers, getting a revenge sweep in the NLCS after suffering the same fate themselves just one year ago. As painful as it is to see them leading the World Series 2-0 over the Tampa Bay Rays, there's no denying they were the better team in 2026 (at least when it mattered most in October).

Still, it's not like they've entered immortality. And, if they do get to that point, they'll need to celebrate the myriad contributions from their mid-season additions. Which is what makes their not-so-humble brags about passing on a Tarik Skubal trade come in a little bit hollow.

“This team was built, not bought," Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said. "It's critical to look at how we got here and because I want to have sustained success, we had to do that by being careful about how many prospects we gave up.”

Pulling up Brewers' trade deadline receipts reveals they're not all that different from Dodgers

If we take a look back at the trade deadline, we can see that the Dodgers went all-in on Skubal. Sure, there was the savvy pickup of then-injured pitcher Kris Bubic and a pair of depth-related moves, but they stuck true to the core that won back-to-back World Series titles.

Meanwhile, the Brewers acquired Bo Naylor, Codi Heuer, Dustin May, JoJo Romero, and Antonio Senzatela prior to August 3. The latter two have played key roles in their bullpen in October, while May handled a number of crucial starts for them down the stretch.

It's not like the Brewers didn't try to acquire Skubal, either. Their final offer reportedly included infielder Luis Peña, who ranks higher on MLB Pipeline's list of the top 100 prospects in baseball than both Zyhir Hope and River Ryan. Milwaukee was also willing to include another top-100 prospect in the deal, which really means that they were trying to keep pace with the Dodgers, but the Detroit Tigers preferred LA's offer more.

Calling the team "built, not bought" is all well and good, but the Brewers can't just pretend that they weren't willing to mortgage some of their farm for a genuine superstar. It worked out in the end because they beat Skubal and the Dodgers, but the truth isn't that they stuck to their small-market guns -- it's that they got out-bid.

Even after winning, it's apparent that the small-market teams can't help but play victim to the Dodgers' willingness to pull out all the stops.

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