NPB All-Star could be a cheap Dodgers alternative to Tarik Skubal

Is it time for the Los Angeles Dodgers to start considering Tarik Skubal alternatives? It's starting to feel that way. From the rumors that the Dodgers might not have the stomach to dole out a decade-plus contract with record setting terms to the idea that new suitors like the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs could be heavily involved in the mix, the ace's return to LA is no slam dunk.

Here's the good news, though. Los Angeles doesn't need an ace like Skubal. Yes, he'd be nice to have. That's why they traded for him in the first place. However, Yoshinobu Yamamoto is a more than capable rotation leader. Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow are high-end starters in their own right when healthy.

Health. That's the key. Snell and Glasnow can't be counted on to last a full season. While the Dodgers have some depth in the form of Emmet Sheehan, Roki Sasaki, and Justin Wrobleski, more is needed.

In the quest for a capable rotation arm, the Dodgers could leverage their strength in Japan to steal away another NPB star. It was announced that Nippon-Ham Fighters ace Hiromi Itoh's posting request was granted, and he could be a picture-perfect fit for what Los Angeles needs.

Hiromi Itoh isn't Tarik Skubal, but he's exactly what the Dodgers need at a greatly reduced cost

At five-foot-nine and 180 pounds, Itoh isn't the strapping kind of ace that makes teams salivate. With that said, the diminutive hurler is durable, throwing at least 146 innings every year since he began his career in 2021.

What's really intriguing about Itoh is his arsenal. While his fastball sits in the low-to-mid 90s, and declined a bit to the 91 to 93 miles per hour range in 2026, it's still an effective pitch. And for the 29-year-old, that's just the start.

Itoh is an "everything and the kitchen sink" kind of pitcher. In addition to the four-seamer, he employs a cutter, a forkball, a splitter, a curveball, a sweeper, a slider, and a slurve. Head spinning yet? Yeah, that's how opposing batters feel.

It's not just the sheer number of pitches that Itoh possesses, either. Instead, it's the way he manipulates them. He drew a lot of praise from Baseball America (subscription required) in his scouting report because of the shapes of those pitches and the way he can change and alter them.

His fastball, despite the pedestrian velocity, comes in at a flat angle that gives it the kind of ride that allows him to work up in the zone. His forkball builds off that, tunneling on the same plane before it drops off the table. His sweeper has over a foot of horizontal break, and the slurve darts down and to his glove side. He spins the ball well and adjusts these shapes further to confound hitters even more.

With all that movement, you might think that control would be an issue, but Itoh walked just 4.7% of batters in 2026 and 3.6% in 2025 when he won the Sawamura Award, which is the NPB version of the Cy Young.

Now, Itoh did take a bit of a step back this year, seeing his ERA rise from 2.52 to 3.23. Combine that with the drop in velocity, and you have a player who Baseball America tags as a back-of-the-rotation innings eater.

There might be a little more upside than that here, but we're not talking about the next Yamamoto. Instead, we're talking about a guy who can take the ball every fifth day and give hitters headaches while making every start. That's what the Dodgers need.

He'll also come at a fraction of the cost of Skubal. Jim Bowden projects a two-year, $22 million contract for the Ham Fighters right-hander, and MLB Trade Rumors agrees with a two-year, $20 million projection.

All said and done, the significantly cheaper alternative that gives the Dodgers what they need might make a lot more sense than yet another mega deal, especially given the labor uncertainty and potential for a salary cap coming down the pike. In that way, Itoh is a fabulous Skubal fallback plan.

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