Tarik Skubal's New Landing Spots Predicted by Insiders Ahead of MLB Free Agency

As Tarik Skubal prepares for his first postseason with the Los Angeles Dodgers, people within MLB are also looking ahead to his free agency and which team he might end up signing with.

In a survey of MLB insiders conducted by ESPN's Kiley McDaniel , the Dodgers, New York Mets and Detroit Tigers were cited as the "true contenders" for the two-time AL Cy Young winner.

The New York Yankees were cited as being "just behind" the lead group in how often they were mentioned.

In the group of sleepers, McDaniel listed the Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Angels as teams that frequently came up.

The Tigers, who traded Skubal to Los Angeles on Aug. 2, are the most interesting of the top group because they don't usually play in the deep end of the free-agent pool.

If they were going to sign Skubal, the Tigers could have just done it last offseason to avoid reaching the point where they had to trade him. He told USA Today 's Bob Nightengale during spring training there was "no offer" that came from Detroit.

The Dodgers aren't a surprise given Skubal is already there and they have a habit of signing the best free agent every year, but McDaniel did note the respondents had "some hesitation" about including them given the uncertainty around their ownership situation with Mark Walter at the moment.

Even though Walter sold his majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this year just 10 months after his purchase was finalized, Dodgers officials have strongly maintained the MLB club is not being sold.

It will be interesting to see how aggressive the Mets want to be this offseason after a 74-88 record in 2026. They spent almost $240 million in free agency last winter, but fans were unhappy about the ways they invested their money.

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns could also be feeling a lot of pressure given that he was at the center of a lot of vitriol from fans in Queens for things like not even attempting to bring back Pete Alonso before he signed with the Baltimore Orioles.

Among the three sleeper teams listed by McDaniel, the White Sox stand out as a team that could make a huge leap to being a top-tier AL team if they upgrade their rotation. The offense ranked fifth in runs scored and sixth in homers this season.

The Angels are in a fascinating position because Stan Kroenke is set to take over as owner after agreeing to buy the club from Arte Moreno for $3.9 billion.

Kroenke's purchase still has to be approved and the timing of that could impact how aggressive they are in free agency, but it's not uncommon for a new ownership team to want to make an aggressive splash right out of the gate.

The downside, though, is the Angels are so far away from being a contender after losing a franchise-record 100 games with a middling farm system , albeit one that is improving, that giving a huge sum of money to Skubal right now may not be the best team-building strategy even if it would make them more interesting in the short-term.

Skubal finished the 2026 regular season with a 2.72 ERA and 186 strikeouts in 158.2 innings over 26 starts between the Tigers and Dodgers. This was his fourth consecutive season with a sub-3.00 ERA and at least 10.0 strikeouts per nine innings.