The rich about to get richer…

The Los Angeles aces are back, and then some. To his Ocean’s Eleven of rotations—marquee-worthy names everywhere—Friedman on Aug. 1 added Skubal, the two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner, in a heist of a trade with the Tigers. In a span of 32 months, through free agency and trades, Friedman acquired Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki and Skubal. They represent six regular-season and postseason MVP awards, four Cy Young Awards and $1.38 billion in salaries, or about what it cost to pay half the players in the majors in 2011.

In the Big Four of Skubal, Yamamoto, Snell and Ohtani, the Dodgers have acquired four of the five pitchers with the lowest ERA in baseball over the past four years (minimum 50 starts), with only the Pirates’ Paul Skenes having evaded their clutches. In their combined postseason careers, the Big Four are 18–8 with a 2.85 ERA.

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