The Los Angeles Dodgers are currently in the early stages of the MLB free agency period, coming on the heels of their loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS. The biggest priority for Los Angeles this winter is bringing back star pitcher Tarik Skubal, who is now a free agent after the team traded for him from the Detroit Tigers this past season.

Now, former MLB general manager and current analyst Jim Duquette has weighed in with his thoughts on Skubal's free agency.

“When you start to narrow it down, I feel like it's the Padres, the Mets, the Dodgers, and maybe there's one another team. Maybe it's the Giants possibly… when I hear the Cubs, the most that they've spent on a contract was Jayson Heyward and Dansby Swanson. They're not spending that kind of money on a starting pitcher,” he said, per Foul Territory on X, formerly Twitter.

Indeed, many organizations have a history of not paying premium prices for the top players, particularly pitchers, as Duquette noted there is only so much impact that a single pitcher can make on a team's success in the MLB when compared to other sports, such as a quarterback in football.

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The Dodgers would certainly love to have Skubal back for the foreseeable future, and they've certainly shown no hesitation to shell out huge money to bring in star players throughout Mark Walter's tenure as the team's owner.

Still, the prospect of Skubal joining one of their NL adversaries, like the Padres or Mets, could be a daunting one for Los Angeles' chances of getting back to the MLB mountaintop.