Good day Ladies & Gents, I hope your week is going as well as the LA Dodgers week is going! The reigning back to back world series champion Los Angeles Dodgers have officially won the Tarik Skubal trade deadline sweepstakes by acquiring the Cy Young Award winning All-star left handed monster this past weekend. The Dodgers already had one of the best starting pitching rotations in baseball history but they might’ve just solidified having the best starting rotation ever established in MLB baseball history after the addition of Tarik Skubal.
When healthy, the Dodgers starting rotation will consist of Tarik Skubal (Allstar), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (2026 Finals MVP & Allstar), Blake Snell (Former Allstar), Justin Wrobleski (Allstar) & Shohei Ohtani (Former MVP & Allstar) along with no slouches in pitchers Roki Sasaki, Kris Bubic & Tyler Glasnow. It’s almost set in stone that the Dodgers will be back in the world series final this upcoming Fall winning possibly their 3rd World Series Title in a row.
In other MLB baseball news, The Toronto Blue Jays departed with starting pitcher Kevin Gausman, who was a big piece of last year’s team that had the Blue Jays within an inning away of winning the 2025/2026 world series title. Gausman was traded to the Chicago Cubs. Although the Blue Jays’ hopes of making this year’s postseason, that didn’t stop the team from making some major moves at this year’s trade deadline. The Blue Jays actually acquired the second most sought after starting pitcher that was available after Tarik Skubal in Jose Soriano. Soriano has been having a fantastic season this year for the Anaheim Angels posting a 3.29 era to go along with a 9-6 record with 127 strikeouts on the year. The Blue Jays also acquired starting pitcher Jameson Taillon from the Gausman trade as well as starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti from the Houston Astros for Blue Jays Golden Glove award winning outfielder Dalton Varsho. Gausman & Varsho will be missed in Toronto moving forward but both moves significantly helped the Blue Jays in the long run clearing up some cap space as well as making room for up and comers in the Blue Jays farm system who currently has four of the top 100 prospects in all of major league baseball. Whether the Blue Jays make the playoffs or not this season they are set up to be a competitive baseball team capable of beating any one for the foreseeable future.
In NHL hockey news, the new goat Macklin Celebrini of the San Jose Sharks signed a massive five-year $94-million dollar extension last Wednesday to continue to be a Shark for the foreseeable future. This deal kicks up a $18.8 million dollar cap hit and it stands to be the highest in the entire league when it kicks in. Celebrini finished the 2025/2026 season fourth in Hart Trophy voting and was a finalist for the Ted Lindsay award after erupting for 115 points in 82 games during his age-19 campaign season. Celebrini could’ve asked for 20% of the team cap space which would have been $20.8 million but attempted to be “team-friendly” and take a little less and leave some money for his team to operate/grow through other financial moves with regard to creating other team roster moves. Celebrini was seen training with Toronto Maple Leafs first overall pick Gavin McKenna throughout this off season both on and off the ice as the superstar Celebrini has been helping young McKenna prepare to play in his NHL debuting rookie campaign season.
McKenna was quoted saying “My trainer’s probably wouldn’t like to hear this but there was a week where we were on the ice for like 17 hours. Crazy but every skate out there, you’re getting better and it’s a competitive group, so I’ve had a lot of fun with it.” McKenna and Celebrini will have their first head to head game against one another this upcoming October 19th when the San Jose Sharks visit Toronto to take on the Leafs in regular season action.
That is it for this week’s edition of the wonderful world of sports. I hope every one enjoyed their long weekend and continues to enjoy the 6 weeks or so left of Summer 2026. Thanks for tuning in to read our newspaper, we at the Two Row Times appreciate each and every one of you! See ya next week!
