What Tarik Skubal said about his pending free agency after Dodgers' playoff elimination

The two-time Cy Young winner hits the market this offseason in a winter of insecurity surrounding the looming CBA negotiations Ace left-hander Tarik Skubal watched his Dodgers get eliminated in the NLCS from the dugout in Game 4 on Thursday night. Now, Skubal's next stop is free agency this coming offseason. He will be the top free agent on the market and command an absurd amount of money before signing on the dotted line. Unsurprisingly, Skubal didn't have much to say on the matter after Game 4. "I'm not going to comment on my future really at all," he said, via MLB.com. "Today sucks, you know, and that's kind of where my head's at." Skubal heads to free agency having made the playoffs for three straight years and posted a 2.13 ERA in eight playoff starts, but his teams have been unable to make the World Series.

In fact, the trip to the NLCS this year with the Dodgers was the deepest he's ever been in the playoffs. The Tigers made the ALDS in both 2024 and 2025 before being eliminated. The 29-year-old Skubal was the American League Cy Young winner in both 2024 and 2025. This season, he suffered an injury to his pitching elbow that required surgery, a new procedure called NanoScope surgery. He healed remarkably quickly, only