Dodgers’ Tarik Skubal addition pours salt in Blue Jays fans’ World Series wound

Few Toronto Blue Jays fans will ever forget the pain of falling just short in the 2025 World Series—and the Los Angeles Dodgers continue to make sure of that. 

The reigning back-to-back champions acquired ace Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers late Saturday night for a package of prospects, making a historic three-peat feel almost inevitable. 

The Blue Jays, meanwhile, appear set to miss the playoffs in 2026. It’s another brutal reminder of how quickly competitive windows can close—except when you’re the Dodgers, apparently.

What does Skubal to the Dodgers mean for the Blue Jays?

A World Series rematch between the Blue Jays and Dodgers has been off the table for months given Toronto’s struggles, but it still hurts to watch baseball’s evil empire grow even more powerful. 

The Blue Jays gave the Dodgers everything they could handle last fall, yet still came up empty-handed. As if that Dodgers team wasn’t already good enough, they’ve since added Edwin Díaz, Kyle Tucker, and now a two-time Cy Young Award winner in Skubal. 

The Dodgers could conceivably trot out a postseason rotation of Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow. It’s fair to wonder how any other organization is supposed to compete against such a stacked roster. 

Blue Jays fans can be forgiven for thinking about how things could have been different. What if Jeff Hoffman didn’t give up that home run to Miguel Rojas? What if Isiah Kiner-Falefa had taken a bigger lead off third base? What if Andy Pages didn’t catch that ball? The Blue Jays are champions if any of those moments played out differently. 

But they didn’t. The Dodgers aren’t loading up trying to get back atop the mountain. They’re already there, adding more to crush any would-be competitors under the weight of their immense resources. The Blue Jays, meanwhile, haven’t been the same since having their hearts ripped out of their chests by this unstoppable machine. 

The future of baseball is murkier than ever now. A lockout that costs everyone games in 2027 feels just as inevitable as the Dodgers winning it all yet again.

While a salary cap likely isn’t the solution to the competitive imbalance we’re seeing across the league—plenty of teams could have offered more for Skubal—the owners will unquestionably weaponize the idea during their labour negotiations with the players. They’ll likely have a legion of frustrated casual fans behind them, especially if Skubal re-signs in free agency. 

What’s done is done, though. There is little point re-opening old wounds—no matter how painful they still sting. Eventually, some fateful team will conjure enough magic to dethrone the juggernaut Dodgers. Until then, the Blue Jays will be left feeling as if it should have been them. 

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