How the Padres Helped the Dodgers Land Tarik Skubal

A four-year-old trade might come back to haunt the Padres after all.

Aug 4, 2026; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Tarik Skubal (29) delivers a pitch against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

When the San Diego Padres host the Los Angeles Dodgers for the final time this season from Sept. 22-24, they might be lucky enough to miss Tarik Skubal.

Skubal, the two-time American League Cy Young Award winner, officially joined the Dodgers this weekend in a blockbuster trade.

Skubal is the best player who changed teams in the middle of the 2026 season, and the Dodgers have the Padres to thank, at least in part.

In March 2022, the Padres traded pitcher River Ryan to the Dodgers for first baseman/designated hitter Matt Beaty. In 2024, Padres president of baseball operations AJ Preller admitted Ryan was "probably one of those guys that you wish we had stayed a little longer with honestly because he’s done really well.”

Beaty played 20 games for the Padres, accrued -0.8 WAR and was cut in September of 2022. He hasn't played affiliated baseball since the 2024 season.

Meanwhile, Ryan just became one of three prospects, along with outfielder Zyhir Hope and pitcher Brady Smith, that the Dodgers used to acquire Skubal from the Tigers.

Skubal might not get a chance to stick it to the Padres in September. He might help the Dodgers win a third consecutive World Series anyway. That was the idea in Los Angeles, at least, when the Dodgers sent two Top-100 prospects (Ryan and Hope) to the Tigers for the 29-year-old left-hander.

So, how did the Padres end up trading Ryan to their archrivals?

In one of the more lightly reported transactions of the 2021-22 offseason, the Padres cut ties with pitching development director Steve Lyons. The Dodgers then hired him to their professional scouting department.

Lyons tipped off the Dodgers' front office to Ryan's talent as a pitcher. (A two-way player in college, Ryan had only been used as a hitter in his first Arizona Complex League games with the Padres.) That's what ultimately led the Dodgers to ask for Ryan in the Beaty trade.

The Padres have done this same thing to other teams. They used a prospect they acquired from the New York Yankees in the Juan Soto trade, Drew Thorpe, to get Dylan Cease from the Chicago White Sox in March 2024. Thorpe has only made nine major league appearances since.

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