Category: MLB

Giants reportedly ‘closing in' on hiring Tennessee coach Tony Vitello as manager originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Giants appear to have found their next manager.

San Francisco is “closing in” on hiring Tennessee coach Tony Vitello to lead the team for the 2026 MLB season, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal reported in a shared column published Saturday, citing industry sources.

The Athletic reached out to the Giants, who had not yet responded to a request for comment at the time this article was written. Vitello, also reached out to by The Athletic via text message, said, “There is nothing to confirm.”

Vitello has been on Buster Posey’s radar for a while, per NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic. Meanwhile, Texas Rangers special assistant Nick Hundley, who was another frontrunner for the job, recently was pulled out of the running.

Tony Vitello has been on Buster Posey’s radar for a while, and sources have said Posey kept circling back to him during the search this month. Nick Hundley was the other early frontrunner but I heard he pulled out of the running recently. Update here from The Athletic: https://t.co/tGAeyGUvGd

— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) October 18, 2025

This story will be updated.

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Would the Dodgers have paid $4 million for Shohei Ohtani’s production on Friday night?

“Maybe I would have,” team owner Mark Walter said with a laugh.

Four million dollars is how much Ohtani has received from the Dodgers.

Not for the game. Not for the week. Not for the year.

For this year and last year.

Read more:Shohei Ohtani’s historic performances send Dodgers back to World Series

Ohtani could be the greatest player in baseball history. Is he also the greatest free-agent acquisition of all-time?

“You bet,” Walter said.

Even before Ohtani blasted three homers and struck out 10 batters over six scoreless innings in a historic performance to secure his team’s place in the World Series, the Dodgers were a target of complaints over the perception they were buying championships. Their payroll this season is more than $416 million, according to Spotrac.

During the on-field celebration that followed the 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, manager Dave Roberts told the Dodger Stadium crowd, “I’ll tell you, before this season started, they said the Dodgers are ruining baseball. Let’s get four more wins and really ruin baseball!”

What detractors ignore is how the Dodgers aren’t the only team that spent big dollars this year to chase a title. As Ohtani’s contract demonstrates, it’s how they spend that separates them from the sport’s other wealthy franchises.

The New York Mets spent more than $340 million, the New York Yankees $319 million and the Philadelphia Phillies $308 million. None of them are still playing.

The Dodgers are still playing, and one of the reasons is because of how opportunistic they are.

When the Boston Red Sox were looking for a place to dump Mookie Betts before he became a free agent, the Dodgers traded for him and signed him to an extension. When the Atlanta Braves refused to extend a six-year offer to Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers stepped in and did.

Something else that helps: Players want to play for them.

Consider the case of the San Francisco Giants, who can’t talk star players into taking their money.

The Giants pursued Bryce Harper, who turned them down. They pursued Aaron Judge, who turned them down. They pursued Ohtani, who turned them down. They pursued Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who turned them down.

Notice a pattern?

Unable to recruit an impact hitter in free agency, the Giants turned their attention to the trade market and acquired a distressed asset in malcontent Rafael Devers. They still missed the postseason.

The Dodgers don’t have any such problems attracting talent. Classified as an international amateur because he was under the age of 25, Roki Sasaki was eligible to sign only a minor-league contract this winter. While the signing bonuses that could be offered varied from team to team, the differences were relatively small. Sasaki was urged by his agent to minimize financial considerations when picking a team.

Sasaki chose the Dodgers.

Players such as Blake Snell, Will Smith and Max Muncy signed what could be below-market deals to come to or stay with the Dodgers.

There is also the Ohtani factor.

Ohtani didn’t want the team that signed him to be financially hamstrung, which is why he insisted that it defer the majority of his 10-year, $700-million contract. The Dodgers are paying Ohtani just $2 million annually, with the remainder owed after he retires.

Without Ohtani agreeing to delayed payments, who knows if the Dodgers would have signed the other pitchers who comprise their dominant rotation, Yamamoto, Snell and Tyler Glasnow.

None of this is to say the Dodgers haven’t made any mistakes, the $102 million they committed to Trevor Bauer a decision they would certainly like to take back.

But the point is they spend.

“We put money into the team, as you know,” Walter said. “We’re trying to win.”

Read more:Plaschke: 'Ohhhhhtani!' Immortal Shohei Ohtani blasts Dodgers to the World Series

Nothing is stopping any other team from making the financial commitments necessary to compete with the Dodgers. Franchises don’t have to make annual profits to be lucrative, as their values have skyrocketed. Teams that were purchased for hundreds of millions of dollars are now worth billions.

Example: Arte Moreno bought the Angels in 2003 for $183.5 million. Forbes values them today at $2.75 billion. If or when Moreno sells the team, he will receive a huge return on his investment.

The calls for a salary cap are nothing more than justifications by cheap owners for their refusal to invest in the civic institutions under their control.

The Dodgers aren’t ruining baseball. They might not do everything right, but as far as their spending is concerned, they’re doing right by their fans.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

You. And you. And you too.

You all ripped the Dodgers for standing fairly pat at the trade deadline, despite glaring holes in left field and in the bullpen. Heck, this was the headline in this very newspaper: “Andrew Friedman struck out on the Dodgers’ urgent need for a closer.”

How ever would the Dodgers return to the World Series?

The San Diego Padres had crept within three games of the Dodgers, and they had given up one of their two elite prospects for Mason Miller. The Philadelphia Phillies, a team that would finish with more wins than the Dodgers in the regular season, had swapped prospects for Jhoan Duran.

Read more:Shohei Ohtani’s historic performances send Dodgers back to World Series

The Dodgers, the team that had spent $85 million on veteran relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates over the winter, had gotten their last three saves from Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer and Ben Casparius. Their trade deadline pickups: Brock Stewart, a setup man who soon would be lost to injury for the season, and Alex Call, a fourth outfielder.

The Padres will not represent the National League in the World Series. Neither will the Phillies.

The Dodgers will, so that was Friedman late Friday night, drenched in celebratory alcohol after a championship series sweep, sloshing through pools of liquid forming on plastic sheeting.

You love him now. Three months ago, you crushed him.

“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “It comes with it.”

Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, appreciates your passion, if not your advice.

“The thing I can’t do is make moves based on what people think we should do,” he said. “We’re going to make mistakes. We’re going to be aggressive taking shots.

“Our goal is to be essentially the casino: be right more than we’re wrong, and have it yield a really good product that has a chance to win the World Series.”

To be the casino means to have options, and to hit on one of them, rather than depending on only one option.

“Our thing on not acquiring some pitching was, we thought we were going to be leaving talented pitchers off our playoff roster as is,” Friedman said. “It wasn’t as front of mind as it was for others.”

Let’s rewind here.

In left field, the Dodgers had to decide whether to acquire a productive bat for a corner outfield spot and release Michael Conforto, pick up a platoon partner for him, or let him ride. They picked up Alex Call, with an unannounced postseason contingency.

"I will say Kiké (Hernández) — trading for him last year, re-signing him this year — that was part of the calculus, given his postseason pedigree,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So that’s not something that was lost on us.”

It ain’t bragging if you back it up. The Dodgers include October on their schedule every year, so they could afford to carry Hernández and his .255 on-base percentage and 0.1 WAR for six months because he conveniently transforms into a star for one month. Hernandez can play anywhere in the infield or outfield.

The Dodgers did not include Conforto on their playoff roster. Hernández has started every game this postseason, with a .375 OBP.

That took care of left field.

The closer?

Friedman believed the Dodgers had enough good arms that one would emerge, even with so many quality arms available in trade. He readily admits he had no idea Roki Sasaki would be the one, as Sasaki was on the injured list at the trade deadline and did not emerge as a reliever until mid-September.

“We said internally that things are lining up that we are going to be at the peak of our health in October,” Dodgers president Stan Kasten said. “And, if that’s the case, we love our rotation, we love our lineup, and we love our bullpen.”

Still, while the starters were headed toward health, the Dodgers made an audacious bet in not adding a late-inning relief arm. Scott, Yates, Brusdar Graterol, Michael Kopech and Evan Phillips all were injured, ineffective, or both.

In the postseason, Sasaki has given up one run and three hits in eight innings. He has three saves, as many as Yates had in the regular season.

“Those trades in July for relievers? That’s why we tried to do what we did in the offseason: be aggressive,” Friedman said.

“Not only are the prices out of whack, the same reliever volatility that we were suffering from in that moment can still happen after you make a trade.”

Miller and Duran — and, for that matter, David Bednar — performed well for their new teams. Camilo Doval and Ryan Helsley did not. So the Dodgers kept their prospects and determined some kind of solution would come from within.

“What we weren’t going to do was do something that we felt was foolish just to placate in that moment,” Friedman said, “and that’s how we have to try to operate and explain it as clearly as we can.

“That said, we’re going to make mistakes. We’re going to make mistakes quite often, and our goal is to learn from them and try to be right more than we’re wrong.”

Read more:Plaschke: 'Ohhhhhtani!' Immortal Shohei Ohtani blasts Dodgers to the World Series

What appeared in the moment to be two big mistakes turned out not to be. Friedman has built two World Series champions within five years, with a third seemingly on deck, so he does not appear to be a moron, no matter what you might see on social media or in the comments section.

Perhaps the Dodgers’ World Series berth might silence his skeptics among the fan base.

“They’re enjoying the success,” Friedman said. “And I’m glad they are.”

Winning the trade deadline is not the goal. Winning a championship trophy is, and the sometimes confounding but always contending Dodgers are four victories away.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Shohei Ohtani delivered one of the greatest performances in baseball history as defending champions the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Milwaukee Brewers to reach the World Series.

Japan's Ohtani smashed three huge home runs and struck out 10 Brewers batters in a comprehensive 5-1 victory as the Dodgers swept the series 4-0.

The 31-year-old's trifecta of home runs and 10 strikeouts in the same game is a Major League Baseball post-season record, highlighting a rare talent of excelling with bat and ball.

Ohtani also became the first pitcher since the Boston Braves' Jim Tobin in 1942 to hit three home runs in the same game.

"It was really fun on both sides of the ball today," said Ohtani, who was awarded the Most Valuable Player award for his heroics.

"I'm taking this trophy and let's get four more wins. We won it as a team and this is really a team effort. I hope everybody in LA and Japan and all over the world could enjoy a really good sake [Japanese rice wine]."

Ohtani's entered the game at the Dodger Stadium on the back of an eight-game home run drought, but led from the front as he struck out three batters in the opening frame.

He then starred with the bat in a performance which included a crushing 446 foot home run and a monster 469 foot hit which bounced out of the stadium.

It marked another historic showing from Ohtani, who last year became the first player ever to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in the same season.

"That was probably the greatest post-season performance of all time," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

"There's a reason why he's the greatest player on the planet. It's kind of whatever you don't expect, expect him to do it.

"This is just a performance that I've just never seen. No-one's ever seen something like this. I'm still in awe right now of Shohei."

The Dodgers' comfortable victory sets up a World Series showdown against the Toronto Blue Jays or Seattle Mariners, with the latter 3-2 up in the best-of-seven series.

Max Muncy stood in the middle of what is normally an underground batting cage. But on Friday, moments after the Dodgerscompleted a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series, it had been transformed into the most exclusive drinking spot in the city, the place where the players came to toast their return to the World Series.

Cheap champagne and even cheaper beer flowed freely — mostly over people’s heads — before forming deep puddles on some plastic sheeting that had hastily been laid along the floor.

“You never get tired of this. You can't ever take this for granted,” Muncy, the Dodger third baseman said, as he clutched a lit cigar in one hand and two red Budweiser bottles in the other. “This is the whole reason that you play baseball. You want to be in this moment.

“You want to play postseason baseball. And to be able to do it for as many times as I've done it, it's just truly a blessing.”

The moment Muncy referred to is the alcohol-infused postseason series victory celebration, a tradition that dates to the 1960 World Series when members of the Pittsburgh Pirates chose not to drink the champagne that had been wheeled into their victorious clubhouse, but began spraying it on one another instead.

As baseball’s postseason format expanded, so did the number of champagne celebrations; Friday’s was the Dodgers’ fifth in 29 days and 10^th in less than two years. And it may not be the last since they’ll open the World Series next weekend with a chance to become the first repeat champion this century.

“It’s a grown man acting like a little kid. You look forward it,” reliever Blake Treinen, who has played for seven playoff teams in his career, said as he leaned on a giant red cooler stuffed with mostly empty bottles of champagne.

When the Dodgers qualified for the playoffs last month, they toasted that achievement at home, then toasted themselves again six days later in Arizona when they clinched the division title. This month they’ve beaten the Cincinnati Reds in the wild-card series, the Philadelphia Phillies in the Division Series and now the Brewers in the LCS.

Read more:Plaschke: 'Ohhhhhtani!' Immortal Shohei Ohtani blasts Dodgers to the World Series

And with each victory, the celebrations have grown in fervor and joy.

“It gets better and better each round,” pitcher Tyler Glasnow agreed.

As soon as Caleb Durbin’s fly ball settled in Andy Pages’ glove near the right-field bullpen gate Friday night, extending the Dodgers’ season while ending the Brewers’, fireworks filled the air and Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” blared from the stadium’s sound system. As a small army of workers rushed to set up a temporary wooden stage behind second base, the players pulled on gray t-shirts with words National League Champions and the script Dodgers set against a baseball diamond outlined in yellow.

On their heads they wore black caps that read World Series 2025. But the public ceremony on the stage, in which chairman Mark Walter was presented with the league championship trophy and Shohei Ohtani was handed the series MVP trophy, was short and tame compared to raucous fiesta that started in the batting cage a few minutes later.

“These kinds of celebrations, you can never have too many,” infielder Miguel Rojas shouted in Spanish over a loud soundtrack of percussive music that played in a loop. “A moment like this is really important, really beautiful.

“Five times this year. We’ve got one to go.”

A few feet away outfielder Teoscar Hernández surrounded himself with a handful of journalists in an unsuccessful attempt to hide from the champagne sprays directed at him by teammates.

“I don't think there's anybody that gets tired of this. I'm not tired,” he said. “I want to get one more, and then five more next year.

“This is the only time that you can get to celebrate something, to be free, not thinking about your job, not thinking about what you got to do tomorrow.”

Read more:Shohei Ohtani’s historic performances send Dodgers back to World Series

As the party began to wane and players left the batting cage to join their families in a quieter gathering on the field, Muncy looked down at the thick victory cigar between his fingers and turned reflective. The celebration wasn’t about champagne or beer or victory cigars. It wasn’t even about winning.

It was more about surviving the crucible of the longest schedule in pro sports and celebrating that with the people who were with you every step of the way.

“It's amazing, is what it is,” he said. “This is one of the best parts about being in the postseason. You grind with your teammates and your brothers for seven, eight months, all the way back to spring training.

“This is just like a culmination of all your collective efforts.”

Who wouldn’t want drink to that?

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Two days ago, Shohei Ohtani rolled into Dodger Stadium as a man on a mission.

After struggling for the previous couple weeks — mired in a postseason slump that had raised questions about everything from his out-of-sync swing mechanics to the physical toll of his two-way duties — the soon-to-be four-time MVP decided it was time to change something up.

Over the previous seven games, going back to the start of the National League Division Series, the $700-million man had looked nothing like himself. Ohtani had two hits in 25 at-bats. He’d recorded 12 strikeouts and plenty more puzzling swing decisions. And he seemed, in the estimation of some around the team, unusually perturbed as public criticisms of his play started to mount.

So, during the team’s off-day workout Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, ahead of Game 3 of the NL Championship Series, Ohtani informed the club’s hitting coaches he wanted to take batting practice on the field.

Read more:Plaschke: 'Ohhhhhtani!' Immortal Shohei Ohtani blasts Dodgers to the World Series

It was a change from his normal routine — and signaled his growing urgency to get back on track.

“If this was a regular-season situation and you're looking at an expanse of small sample — eight, nine games, whatever it might be — he probably wouldn't be out on the field,” manager Dave Roberts said later.

But “with the urgency [of] the postseason,” the manager continued, Ohtani “wanted to make an adjustment on his own.”

Whatever Ohtani found that day, evidently (and resoundingly) clicked. He led off Game 3 with a triple. He entered Game 4 looking more comfortable with his swing. And then, in one of the incredible individual displays ever witnessed in playoff history, he lifted the Dodgers straight into the World Series.

In a 5-1 defeat of the Milwaukee Brewers that completed an NLCS sweep and gave the Dodgers their 26th pennant in franchise history, Ohtani hit three home runs as a hitter, and struck out 10 batters over six-plus scoreless innings as a pitcher.

He made his previously disappointing playoffs a suddenly forgotten memory, earning NLCS MVP honors and to the astonished amazement of all 52,883 in attendance.

And he delivered the kind of game the baseball world dreamed about when the two-way phenom first arrived from Japan, fulfilling the prophecy that accompanied him as a near-mythical prospect eight years earlier.

Back then, Ohtani’s 100-mph fastball and wicked off-speed repertoire had tantalized evaluators. His majestic left-handed swing had tortured pitchers in his home country.

Not since Babe Ruth had the sport seen anything like him.

There were some early growing pains (and injuries) during his transition to the majors. But over the last five years, he blossomed in the game’s definitive face.

All that had been missing, in a resume chock full of MVPs and All-Star selections and unthinkable records even "The Great Bambino" never produced, was a signature performance in October. A game in which he dominated on the mound, thrilled at the plate, and single-handedly transformed a game on the sport’s biggest stage.

During that Wednesday workout this week, Ohtani got himself ready for one, stepping into the cage during his on-field batting practice — as his walk-up song played through the stadium speakers and teammates gathered near the dugout in curious anticipation — and swatting one home run after another, including one that soared to the roof of the right-field pavilion.

On Friday, in an almost unimaginable showcase of his unprecedented talents, he managed to do exactly the same thing.

After stranding a leadoff walk in the top of the first with three-straight strikeouts, Ohtani switched from pitcher to hitter and unleashed a hellacious swing. Brewers starter José Quintana left him an inside slurve. Ohtani turned it into the first leadoff home run ever by a pitcher (in the regular season or playoffs). The ball traveled 446 feet. It landed high up the right-field stands.

Three more scoreless innings of pitching work later, Ohtani came back to the plate and hit his second home run of the night even farther. In a swing almost identical to his titanic BP drive two days prior, he launched a ball that darn near clipped the pavilion roof again, a 469-foot moonshot that landed in the concourse above the seats in right.

Somehow, there was still plenty more to come.

With the Dodgers up 4-0 at that point, Ohtani then did his best work as a pitcher, following up two strikeouts that stranded a leadoff double in the fourth — and had him excitedly fist-pumping off the mound — with two more in both the fifth and the sixth.

His fastball was humming up to triple-digits. His sweeper and cutter were keeping the Brewers off balance. His splitter wasn’t touched once any of the five times they tried to swing at it.

Anything he did immediately became magic.

Ohtani’s loudest roar came in the bottom of the seventh, after his pitching start had ended on a walk and a single led off the top half of the inning.

For the third time, he flung his bat at a pitch over the plate. He sent a fly ball sailing deep in a mild autumn night. He rounded the bases as landed beyond the center field fence.

Three home runs. Six immaculate innings. A tour de force that sent the Dodgers to the World Series.

All of it, just two days removed from Ohtani being seemingly at his lowest.

All of it, when the baseball world was most closely watching.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

One minute he was burning through the top of the first inning with three flaming strikeouts.

Roar!

The next minute — literally — he was slugging through the bottom of the first by driving a ball 446 feet into the back of the right-field pavilion.

Roar! Roar! 

Three innings later he was doing it again, striking out two batters in the top of the fourth inning before driving a ball 469 feet underneath the roof of the same right field pavilion.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Read more:Shohei Ohtani’s historic game carries Dodgers past Brewers and into World Series

Then in the seventh inning after he had left the mound he hammered history again, driving a ball 427 feet over the center-field fence.

Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!

Shohei Ohtani, are you for real?

Dodger fans, do you realize what you’re watching here? Los Angeles, can you understand the singular greatness that plays here? Fall Classic, are you ready for another dose of Sho-time?

Ohtani and the Dodgers are back on baseball’s grandest stage, arguably the best player in baseball history and the defending champions returning together to the World Series Friday night, Ohtani pitching and hitting his star-struck teammates into a four-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series.

The final score was 5-1, but, really, it was over at 1-0, Ohtani’s thunderous leadoff homer after his thundering three strikeouts igniting a dancing Dodger Stadium crowd and squelching the Brewers before the first inning was even 10 minutes old.

How far did that first home-run actually travel? Back, back, back into forever, it was the first leadoff homer by a pitcher in baseball history, regular season or postseason, even the legendary Babe Ruth never did it.

The amazing unicorn basically created the same wizardry again in the fourth inning and added a third longball in the seventh in carrying the Dodgers to their second consecutive World Series and fifth in nine years while further cementing their status as one of baseball’s historic dynasties.

They are attempting to become the first back-to-back champions in 25 years, since the 1999-2000 Yankees.

Beginning Oct. 24 against either the Seattle Mariners or Toronto Blue Jays, the Dodgers will enter this World Series with something none of those past great teams — or any teams ever — possessed.

All together now… Ohhhhhtani!

And to think, before the game he was slumping, two-for-11 in the NLCS, batting .158 for the postseason, swinging so wildly that he actually emerged from his usual indoor batting cage fortress to take batting practice on the field during Wednesday’s workout.

Facing nagging questions before the workout about whether the strain of pitching was affecting his hitting, he denied any correlation.

“I don't necessarily think that the pitching has affected my hitting performance,” he said at the time. “Just on the pitching side, as long as I control what I can control, I feel pretty good about putting up results. On the hitting side, just the stance, the mechanics, that's something that I do — it's a constant work in progress. I don't necessarily think so. It's hard to say.”

Everyone should have known something was up during that special batting practice when Ohtani drove a ball off the right-field roof. He was clearly embarrassed by his performance and vowed to silence the critics.

His pitching was never in question — he was the winning pitcher with six strong innings in the division series opener against the Philadelphia Phillies — but he came out firing anyway Friday in the top of the first when he struck out two Brewers on 100-mph fastballs and another on an 88-mph breaking ball.

In the bottom of the first, he finally shut everybody up when he connected on a full-count slurve from the Brewers’ lefty starter Jose Quintana and drove it into oblivion.

Nearly the same scene repeated itself in the fourth inning, two strikeouts followed by a deafening home run against Chad Patrick.

By then, he was so overpowering in so many ways, in the sixth inning fans started a cheer with a timing likely never before heard at a baseball game.

They chanted, “MVP…MVP…MVP”...while Ohtani was on the mound.

When Ohtani finally left the game in the seventh after giving up a walk and a single, organist Dieter Ruehle played, “Jesus Christ Superstar” while the stadium shook with a prolonged standing ovation.

But he wasn’t done yet.

After finishing with six scoreless, two-hit, 10-strikeout innings on the mound, he came out of the dugout again in the seventh. For most great pitchers, they’d only emerge for a curtain call. But this being Ohtani, he was still in the game, and for pitcher Trevor MeGill, it was curtains.

The fastball disappeared into the crowd and what eventually emerged was surely the greatest postseason stat line in baseball history.

Read more:Shaikin: Shohei Ohtani could pull off a playoff feat even Babe Ruth never achieved

Three home runs at the plate, six shutout innings with 10 strikeouts on the mound, in an NLCS game that sent his team to the World Series.

Before the game, Manager Dave Roberts basically called it, saying, “I think this is his opportunity to make his mark on this series. And, so, we're going to see his best effort. So, I feel good that he's pitching for us.”

Pitching and hitting and winning, all at heights never before reached in the long history of this grand old game.

Unbelievable.

Ohhhhhtani.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Thursday’s report in the New York Postthat the Detroit Tigers and Cy Young Award-winner Tarik Skubal were $250 million apart on contract value landed as a significant development in this winter’s starting pitching trade market -- a market in which the Mets will be involved.

If team and player are that far apart 12 months before Skubal hits free agency, it is logical to assume that the Tigers will explore trades.

Might Skubal remain with Detroit next season? Sure. But the Post story seemed like a big move in the other direction. A subsequent report in the Detroit Free Press added that the Tigers last year offered Skubal a four-year contract for less than $100 million.

Leaks like this more frequently precede baseball breakups than they do marriages.

The Mets are looking for pitching. In fact, they would love to have a best-in-class ace as soon as possible.

Paul Skenes is the dream target for any club seeking an ace, but teams that would be interested do not expect the Pittsburgh Pirates to make Skenes available. The Mets should call the Pirates just to be sure, but now Skubal seems far more attainable.

If (when?) the Tigers do take calls on Skubal, expect the Mets to be motivated and involved. While I don’t think the Mets would deal Nolan McLean for one year of any player -- McLean is part of the future, not a trade piece -- the Mets surely know that they would have to discuss just about any other prospect or young player to land Skubal.

Because the Tigers are in their window to win, they would probably want MLB talent in addition to top prospects like Jonah Tong and Jett Williams. For what it’s worth, Detroit has expressed interest in Brett Baty in the past.  

The Mets like Baty, but in general are willing to shake up their current position player group. For a pitcher like Skubal, any team would part with good players.

With Tigers ace Tarik Skubal a year away from free agency, the possibility exists that Detroit will make him available via trade this offseason while seeking a massive haul in return.

And Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports that the gap in what the Tigers have offered and what Skubal is seeking could be roughly $250 million.

The report from The Post regarding Detroit's offer is similar to one that came out last November from Evan Petzold in The Detroit Free Press, who noted that the Tigers' offer at the time was non-competitive.

Meanwhile, Tigers owner Christopher Ilitch gave a bit of a weird answer earlier this month when asked about a possible Skubal extension. 

Adding more intrigue to the situation is the fact that the 28-year-old left-hander is repped by Scott Boras, who ordinarily takes his biggest clients to free agency. 

That means the calculus for the Tigers could be simple: trade Skubal this offseason and maximize his value, or run the risk of losing him for draft pick compensation after the 2026 season.

In a world where Skubal is available this offseason, the Mets would almost certainly be very interested and in a strong position to make a highly competitive offer.

New York's farm system is among the best in baseball, and was recently rated by ESPN as the No. 1 system in MLB.

With Skubal one year from free agency, the cost to acquire him would be lower than a scenario where he had multiple years of team control left, but it would still be huge. 

It's unclear what the Tigers would be seeking, but the Mets have blue chip pitching prospects and hitting prospects who are close to the majors and others who are further away. So it's fair to believe they'd be able to put together a package that piques Detroit's interest. 

Among the Mets' top prospects are pitchers Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat, infielder/outfielder Jett Williams, center fielder Carson Benge, first baseman Ryan Clifford, third baseman Jacob Reimer, and shortstop Elian Peña.

As far as Nolan McLean, it's hard to envision the Mets including him in a deal for any player who is a pending free agent.