Dodgers' magical trade voodoo may have already corrupted Zyhir Hope

The Los Angeles Dodgers made the biggest, yet most unsurprising, trade of the 2026 MLB trade deadline. Los Angeles finally ended the Tarik Skubal trade rumors by shipping Zyhir Hope, River Ryan, and Brady Smith to the Detroit Tigers for the two-time Cy Young Award winner.

Even with two top-100 prospects going to Detroit in return, it still felt like a sparse trade return for one of the best pitchers in the entire sport. For a Dodgers farm system that is absolutely loaded with talent, trading Hope, Ryan, and Smith makes little tangible difference.

In fact, early trends indicate that the Dodgers may have pulled the rug out from their trade partners yet again. The Dodgers have a favorable history of trading prospects right at the perfect time only for those prospects to struggle with their new organization. It's a small sample size, but Hope is following the trend early.

Zyhir Hope struggles mightily in Tigers farm system instantly after Tarik Skubal trade

Hope has played 11 games for Detroit's Double-A affiliate and has just seven hits. The left-handed outfielder is hitting .159 with 16 strikeouts in 50 plate appearances. It's quite the dip from the .293 average and .899 OPS he carried at Double-A Tulsa.

It's not like the slump started before the trade, either. Hope slashed .333/.382/.608 with four home runs in his final 12 games in the Dodgers organization. He went 3-for-5 with two home runs in his last game with Tulsa.

To be fair to Hope, being traded is a big life change and it's not uncommon for players to struggle as they settle into their new home. Heck, it's the middle of August and Kyle Tucker is still struggling for the big-league club. Given the circumstances, with the small sample size, Tigers fans aren't worried at all about the slow start.

Connor Muldowney of Motor City Bengals urges that it's "way too early" to worry about Hope, and penned the following in his dissertation:

Ten games is just way too small of a sample size to really know if the Tigers made a good deal or not, especially since Hope is a player who’s been a consistent hitter since signing his first deal with the Cubs back in 2023. He’s also gotten off to slow starts in the month of August before and he’s turned it around in a hurry.

In fact, just last year, he started the month of August in 2025 hitless through six games (0-for-20) while striking out nine times — that’s almost a 50 percent strikeout rate. He settled in shortly after, hitting .240 for the remainder of August with a home run and 11 RBI. He also had a stretch in August in 2024 where he went 1-for-21."

Hope's previous August struggles are a positive sign that this is something he can slug his way out of. However, the Dodgers' history of trading hitting prospects is the more concerning trend for Tigers fans.

Dodgers' history of trading top hitting prospects should scare Tigers fans with Zyhir Hope

Before we dive into all the bad examples... yes, the Dodgers traded Yordan Alvarez and O'Neil Cruz. Those examples love to be brought up to try and dunk on the best front office in baseball, but neither Alvarez or Cruz were top prospects.

Alvarez hadn't even played a game in the Dodgers organization before the trade. He was a complete unknown. Cruz was a mid-tier prospect who, let's face it, hasn't really blossomed into a consistent big-league hitter with a career .747 OPS.

The first big deadline trade this Dodgers front office made was a rental deal for Yu Darvish. Top-100 prospect Willie Calhoun headlined that trade and never panned out for Texas. He posted a negative WAR in 253 games across six years for the Rangers before becoming an MLB journeyman.

Los Angeles made another rental trade for Manny Machado at the 2018 deadline. It was a five-prospect package headlined by Future Game standout Yusniel Diaz, who looked like the next great hitting outfielder. Diaz's offensive numbers plummeted in the Baltimore organization. To this day, he has one career MLB plate appearance in 2022. Diaz struck out.

In 2020, the Dodgers acquired Mookie Betts in a package headlined by Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and Connor Wong. Verdugo was already an established big-league hitter and succeeded at the plate in his first two years in Boston but it went downhill quickly. He's now out of the league. Downs was a top-100 prospect who somehow mustered a -0.6 WAR in 14 career games in Boston.

Arguably the biggest trade deadline move in MLB history happened in 2021 when the Dodgers acquired both Trea Turner and Max Scherzer. Keibert Ruiz was the best hitting prospect in that trade and he's been wholly serviceable. Josiah Gray never worked out as a top arm. It was a lackluster return for two franchise pillars.

Miguel Vargas is the one young bat that bucks this trend but even he had a cup of coffee with the big-league club before being traded to Chicago. Hope doesn't have that big-league experience, and history shows that when the Dodgers trade a top hitting prospect with no big-league experience, it almost never works out.

Sorry, Tigers fans. Maybe you should be worried about a small sample size.

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