Tarik Skubal toes the line with post-elimination comments on Dodgers future

Turns out the Tarik Skubal script didn't go as planned for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The expectation was that his arrival in August would put the Dodgers on a path to their third consecutive World Series title, but after he took the loss in Game 1 of the NLCS, it felt like Thursday's outcome was inevitable.

After being swept by the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS, there's really two questions surrounding the Dodgers as the offseason starts. Will Shohei Ohtani have surgery this offseason? But an even bigger one is the question of Skubal's future.

Once the Dodgers traded for Skubal, it felt like a foregone conclusion that his next contract would be with LA. Overall, it still feels that way, but it's also fair to suggest that doubt has crept in. There's the threat of what the next CBA will bring, and there's also the threat of the New York Mets simply making Skubal an offer he can't refuse.

Tarik Skubal carefully navigates free agency speculation after Dodgers' NLCS elimination

For now, Skubal isn't really showing his hand. It didn't take long for him to embrace what it meant to be a Dodger, and when asked on Thursday about his plans moving forward, he didn't really reveal much. Instead, Skubal fell back on the company line for the Dodgers.

"I'm really not going to comment on my future... It's so hard to win. Seeing what the Dodgers have done the last two years, you think it's easy, but it's really not."

No state secrets were revealed, the earth wasn't shattered, and time didn't stand still. Skubal simply said what was always going to be the Dodgers' reasoning had they not reached the World Series, doing so three straight years is incredibly hard to do.

It was a careful response from Skubal, and considering Scott Boras is the one pulling the strings behind the scenes, it makes sense. Skubal was never going to declare his return to the Dodgers in the immediate aftermath of LA's season ending. Even had they won the World Series, he would have said something along the lines of celebrating the win before he was ready to turn his focus to free agency.

It's all a guessing game for now. The educated guess is that Skubal returns to the Dodgers, but given the uncertainty that's ahead for baseball, you never know when the crazy could happen.

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