The Major League Baseball postseason is less than a month away, and that means that the trade deadline has come and gone. There were buyers and there were sellers. Playoff teams raided the cupboards of those in rebuild mode in hopes of finding the final puzzle piece and a World Series victory with it. One of the major trades this year came from who else but the Los Angeles Dodgers, who acquired back-to-back AL Cy Young-winning ace pitcher Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers. So the Dodgers are probably going to three-peat.
But the real news isn’t the addition of Skubal of an already stacked bullpen, it’s what else the Dodgers acquired in the trade, which is the espresso machine Skubal took with him from the Tigers clubhouse.
As reported by Yahoo Sports, Skubal “gifted a high-end espresso machine” to the team, and so when he packed his bags for LA, he took it with him too. And when the Dodgers headed to Detroit for a series against the Tigers, Skubal had some explaining to do. His explanation, by the way, was basically “my wife made me do it.”
“I wanted to leave it and get a new one, but she wouldn’t let me,” Skubal told the Athletic. “My wife was like, ‘That was too expensive to just run the charge back.'”
And the plot thickens. According to an MLB.com article from February, Skubal actually purchased the espresso machine with “longtime teammate, good friend, and clubhouse neighbor Casey Mize.” Mize was traded to the Padres just two days after the Tigers moved Skubal, but still, why didn’t Skubal leave the machine for his buddy?
Making things even worse, the Tigers have grown accustomed to a certain level of coffee in the clubhouse. According to a different MLB.com article, it started in 2025, when newly-acquired pitcher Charlie Morton brought his own espresso machine with him. Morton’s stint with the team was short-lived and so too was his espresso machine’s, but that set the standard. Though, Skubal’s now-stolen machine apparently wasn’t as nice as Morton’s.
This all leads to one question and one question alone: what sort of espresso machine did Tarik Skubal (maybe) steal? It’s expensive enough for him to blame his wife for the theft. This a man who is currently making $32 million a year. So if there is anyone currently playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Detroit Tigers, or anyone who works in either clubhouse who can answer this burning question, our email is open.
And it should go without saying but this year it might actually mean something, but Go Brewers.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
