Tigers' Tarik Skubal trade sweepstakes is down to Dodgers, 5 other teams

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The MLB trade deadline is less than two weeks away.

Whether or not the Detroit Tigers trade Tarik Skubal is a decision that will soon be finalized. The Los Angeles Dodgers, and the rest of MLB, are watching closely.

The Tigers are still in a tough spot in the American League playoff race. They're not out of it, but they're outside the wild card looking in, and they're crowded with a bunch of other sort-of hopefuls, too.

Skubal's contract is up at the end of the year, so keeping him and missing the playoffs, only to lose him for nothing in the offseason, would be a Detroit disaster.

That's why ESPN set Skubal's odds in a new article on Tuesday as 60% chance of being traded by the deadline.

Maybe the most notable new information from insider Jeff Passan in that article, which re-hashes a lot of the same Skubal stuff, is the list of teams that could get him.

"Every single contending team -- but more realistically the Dodgers, Braves, Brewers, Cubs, Phillies and Rays," Passan writes as Skubal's "best fits."

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The Dodgers are the team everyone mentions, but also the team everyone fears.

The Braves and Cubs are the two most pitcher-needy clubs among playoff contenders.

The Brewers and Rays are both smaller markets that would never get Skubal in free agency but could get him for a few months in a trade.

And the Phillies still have much of their same core and have been looking for years for the piece that could put them over the top.

The Tigers should be able to drum up a pretty good bidding war from that crowd, if those teams really all are making offers for Skubal.

It's not a given that the back-to-back Cy Young winner gets traded, but pretty soon, the whole baseball world will know the final outcome.