Skubal was on an expiring contract, while Jaylen Brown is locked up. That makes a big difference.

Also, in the NBA, if you acquire a player on an expiring contract it’s easier to re-sign them

Because the best nba player will guarantee mvps and finals appearances. Ohtani and trout on the angels didn’t even make the playoffs once

I think the individual impact of players is less in baseball, because of the size of the team and way defense and offense is played. Especially with pitchers

NBA doesn’t have a farm system the way MLB does. Smaller market teams have to invest a ton in the long-term where as the wealthy teams can buy titles. There’s no salary cap parity. One player doesn’t have the ability to impact your season the way basketball can.

Many more reasons. 

End of the day, they’re completely different sports.

Stars contribute to winning more in basketball than baseball

An elite player on an NBA team can completely change it. Skubal is great but he pitches one game a week and (will be ¹⁄₆ games in the regular season for the Dodgers, probably ¹⁄₄ games in the playoffs) not even the entire game. He will have significantly less impact.

Because there are only 5 NBA players on the court and they play offense and (some) play defense. NBA stars have a much larger impact on their teams than any other sport.

Look at roster sizes. 5 starters in basketball vs 9 in baseball. Then you have the salary cap that teams have to work around, so the money has to somewhat match between the two sides if one team doesn’t have cap room.

Basketball has the highest potential individual impact in any major sport. Football is basically simulated battle which requires multiple units to work correctly at the same time. Baseball is just limited by its static nature and attrition. No matter how good Ohtani is he can only affect a game once every 5 days or 9th batter. Then we have hundreds of examples of basketball teams playing their best player(s) 80-90% of minutes in high leverage situations. Hockey is also two way but historic minutes distribution clearly show it’s not reasonable to play a player more than 50-60% of game action.

Basically Lebron in theory can impact more minutes of his sport than McDavid, Ohtani or Mahomes can in theirs. There’s a reason why pretty much every all time great individual player in NBA history has made at least one finals. Their individual production usually directly translates to wins. It’s why James harden sticks out like a sore thumb in the all time WS leaders.

There are thousands of MLB players. Only 500 NBA player. Of course 1 superstar NBA player will be worth more than 1 MLB superstar player generally.

Probably because in the MLB a superstar is 1/9th of your starting lineup (or 1/12th of your bullpen) whereas in the NBA a superstar is 1/5th of your starting lineup

The power of one player to effect winning in basketball is far greater than any other team sport.

Give a great quarterback a bad offensive line and they likely won’t win shit. Conversely, take LeBron from the Cavs and a team making deep playoff runs became so terrible that they are able to draft three number 1 overall picks while he was gone (Andrew Wiggins, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Bennett).

One player is the difference between contender and laughing stock in the NBA. But in Baseball you can have Mike Trout and Shoehei Ohtani and still miss the playoffs.

Not a baseball guy but I believe that Skubal is leaving in 2027 anyway and doesn’t have long left on his deal. It would be better to compare to what a football club gets for a guy with 6 months on his deal, the answer is not much, a fraction of what he’s worth.

Also, to answer the bottom question, one player in the NBA has far more influence than they do in Baseball. Mike Trout never won a playoff game and was the best player of his generation, even 2nd rate stars usually win a first round series

even the best pitcher in the game pitches 200ish innning in a season, and there are 1500apx innings in a season.

a 7th man on a nba roster has more impact on a game than that.

Salary matching 

Even I know this as a European. NBA superstars are the most valuable people in sports, because there are 5 people on the court, and they play about 80% of the games. In the NFL, quarterback takes a lot of the pie, but they have like 45 people. Baseball is like 15 guys or so, and while the pitchers eat up a lot of the pie, they just don’t come close to a basketball player.

Messi is the biggest brand on earth, by far, and it’s not close. And even he doesn’t come close to the impact an NBA superstar has on basketball.

Because in basketball, the best players have a bigger impact than in literally every other sport combined, quarterbacks aside.

That, and the average first round pick in the NBA is lowkey worthless compared to most sports leagues.

An NBA player affects the game more than 1 baseball player

5 players from 1 team on the court at any given time vs a field of 10 to 12 players for a baseball team

Star NBA players when healthy play every game, Star pitchers are on a rotation

Stuff like that I assume is the difference

Cus he’s a free agent in 2 months and the only advantage the dodgers have is the right to extend him during this season. But anyone generational will go to the open market for top dollar. Now the new CBA could change all that

There are exceptions, but in general, 1 player has the ability to make more of an impact in basketball than baseball.

there’s 450 NBA players, one star is ¹⁄₅ the team

there’s 948 mlb players. 1 star player is ¹⁄₉ the team

Skubal is a pitcher and only is used once every 5 games (5 pitcher rotation). Compared to Brown who will be used every game, the value can’t be compared.

imagine if a basketball star only played once every 6 games or so

Because an NBA superstar has way more impact on team success and title chances than any one baseball player

You can intentionally walk the best hitters and starting pitchers usually only pitch once every 5 games.

Compare that to an NBA superstar that could impact every important play, on offense and defense.

lol you used Jaylen Brown as your example 😂

NBA has too many mechanisms that make a trade very difficult and they have a salary cap.

An individual in basketball can make a significant difference vs a single person in baseball (or football).

You get a top 10 player or a top draft pick, you can go from 300 to 600 in a season or two. Won’t necessarily make you a true contender but it can definitely change the trajectory of the franchise.

Some of it comes down to how the prospect development game is very different between the MLB and NBA but really the simplest answer is that superstars are more valuable in the NBA than in the MLB. A top tier superstar can immediately turn a bad team into a good team (Bron to CLE, first and second time around), a good team into a great team (Bron to MIA, Kawhi to TOR first time around) and a great team into a ridiculous one (KD to GSW). Meanwhile the Angels had 3 time MVP Mike Trout, added a guy with a genuine shot to go down as the GOAT in Ohtani, and never made even a ripple in the playoffs

Dodgers just have to beat the next best offer. Everyone knew the dodgers were interested. Why waste time chasing a player you know you’ll never get? The dodgers have broken the trade market, they have so many resources it stifles competition.

They are more valuable. There are less of them.

There are so many baseball players. D2 pitchers can easily get a shot. A D2 center isnt on anybody’s radar. They play so many baseball games that kids who were on JV as a high school sophomore arent necessarily counted out because someone needs to play those games.

There are 162 baseball games regular season… these dudes play ball almost every day… rotating players. It’s just an entertainment business and they sell hella tickets. It’s not about competition. Then they farm players to the Yankees and Dodgers so they can generate the most revenue in the playoffs. Every year a new team takes a shot - Cleveland had a good year, Detroit, Toronto, Seattle, now another team gets a turn… because the sport has so much variance outside of the farm teams. Which D2 college athlete is pitching out of his mind this week?

This speaks to the fact that hitting a baseball is difficult for even the best… and if you don’t know the pitcher, you might get caught off guard even if you’re Aaron Judge.

There are fewer players on the court, which means one player’s impact on a single game can, most of the time, be greater than even Ohtani’s.

There’s also the fact that Skubal will enter free agency. Think even the Soto rental got more so its not really that much different I think.

This is basically the Dodgers being smart, unlike for example New York with the Melo trade. They won now though!

It’s mostly about the level of impact a single player can have. Adding a superstar like Lebron or Jokic can instantly turn a lottery team into a contender in the NBA. A single player in baseball just doesn’t matter than much.

It’s not just a 5 players vs 9 players thing, in basketball a single player can get like 30% usage on offense (Harden got up to like 40% at his peak). But a hitter really can’t do anything to hit much more than 1/9th of the time, and a pitcher really can’t do anything to pitch much more than like 1/6th of the time for short stretches (accounting for total innings pitched).

It’s also probably because of value inflation. you could trade for 1 or 2 FRPs back in like, 2000 or smth. but the league has increased the value of superstars to cost more than 1 or 2 FRPs. eventually the MLB will probably reach that point where they trade a superstar for the equivalent of 4 FRPs and 3 pick swaps

You have to have 6 years of MLB service before you qualify as a free agent. Most teams will technically get 7 years of service if they time call ups correctly before they have to pay the massive free agent contracts. Small and mid-market teams usually trade these top rated players away before they hit free agency to get prospects to start the process over.

If Skubal had 2 to 3 years left before he is free agent eligible, he would have been worth a whole lot more

Because in basbeball one player doesn’t affect a game the same way. If you get prime LeBron James as long as the rest of your team isn’t horrific you are almost instantly in championship contention

You ever try to watch baseball sober? I’ve seen more entertaining paint dry. 

Skubal’s contract was expiring and baseball isn’t as star power heavy by default.

Guess what they had to give up for arguably the best pitcher? Just two top tier prospects that haven’t proven anything in the MLB level. It’s kinda like 2-3 first round picks.

Yet in the NBA, on average, most superstars command way more value. Like Jaylen Brown, you need multiple first round picks,

Uh…what?

Your first statement is that the trade package Tigers got is underwhelming because they got the equivalent of 2-3 first round picks. Your second statement is that in the NBA, it takes way more to get a star and cite the Brown trade where the Celtics got two first round picks?

The answer to your question overall is that teams like the Tigers don’t have much leverage. They have to trade Skubal before the deadline and they can only offer him as a 2-3 month rental to whoever acquires him. The only leverage a team in that position would have is if multiple other teams engage in a bidding war which didn’t seem to happen here.

As everyone else said, a pitcher pitches once every 5 games and a hitter still has to wait for 8 other teammates to take their at bat before they get another chance so opportunities are limited by the sport itself.

An NBA player can have the ball in their hands every possession if needed and can impact the game without any of those constraints. Not to mention their skill set and year to year production is typically way less volatile.

1 yr left on his contract so he’s gonna be a free agent at the end of this rental. Detroit have low leverage because Skubal most likely isn’t going to re-sign with them.

Also, basketball is 5v5 with 1 star player able to dominate for 80% of every single game on both ends. Baseball starting pitchers can only dominate once every 4 or 5 games. Position players can only dominate once every 9 at-bats.

NBA superstars mean more.

Your guy is on the court for close to 75% of the game, playing what should be at least 80% of the season.

A superstar pitcher in baseball might pitch 20% of the games in a season.

That pitcher could go 33-0 in the season and your team still could finish the year 33-129.

Because a baseball player is 1/9th of a team and a basketball player is 1/5th of a team.

The market is different.

The NBA is in an era of parity. The chip is up for grabs. There’s more competition to sign players that can contribute to a championship.

It’s Dodgers’ league and everyone else is just playing in it. A lot of teams have thrown in the towel. The ones that haven’t don’t necessarily have the money to spend.

Half as many players.

Less roster spots, NBA’s massive broadcast deal… Also, many are speculating the MLB owners are colluding to force a salary cap. It wouldn’t the first time the owners have colluded.

because the impact of an elite player in basketball is greater overall than the impact of an elite player in baseball. If you only have an 1 elite player in basketball like Luka, you are going to the playoffs with chance to win. If you only 1 elite player in baseball like Ichiro, your team wont win.

why do we keep comparing baseball to the NBA when it’s apples to oranges

Star basketball players and top end QBs are the only professional athletes that can swing a team. A starting pitcher only plays ¹⁄₅ of the games.

2-3 picks is equivalent to 2-3 prospects.

The NBA has a salary cap, which means that it’s pretty rare for a top player to change teams via free agency. Other teams just rarely have the cap space to make a credible offer while remaining competitive.

Also, in the NBA, you only have five players playing at a time, and your main rotation is probably like 8 guys. MLB you have nine players playing, your main rotation in a game is probably like 12 or 13 players, and that’s not counting another 4 starters and three relievers since pitchers can go every day, so an actual competitive team requires like 20 players.

e.g., last year’s SF Giants, who were a .500 team, had 14 position players who played at least 50 games, and 15 pitchers who played in 20.

Additionally, the best hitter in the league can only take 1/9th of his team’s at-bats, as opposed to the ball going through LeBron James every single possession down the stretch. The best pitchers in the game only play in ~30-35 games.

This reduces the value of a star (from a contribution-to-winning standpoint) compared to the NBA.

Simply put; I think one nba superstar can turn a terrible team into a contender, where a superstar in baseball is just another piece.

Cause they’re taller

MLB prohibits trading draft picks.

This is a rental for like 2 months.

After all the memes, the actual answer is that one person can make a bigger impact in basketball than in baseball 

Angels had trout and ohtani and couldn’t sniff the platoffs for years

Jaylen Brown is a terrible example to use.

For someone of his caliber, the Sixers got him for free.

Also, “two top tier prospects” in baseball actually means something.

The NBA doesn’t have an actual developmental system.

Jaylen Brown for two G-League players is giving him away.

The two guys in the Dodgers trade could actually be good players.

All that said, the part about the Tarik Skubal trade that most surprised me was finding out there is a baseball player named Tarik Skubal.

How many games does a pitcher actually contribute throughout the season? Compare that to an nba player. There’s your value

Because if the Dodgers did not get Tarik Skubal now they would have just signed him in free agency in 2 months.

Also as others have pointed out, the marginal value of one elite player is lower in baseball than in basketball.

MLB has no salary cap. No need to worry about matching salaries in trades. NBA trades often have more assets thrown in to appease the other team for taking bad contracts or whatever.

So a few very relevant things.

40 man rosters make individual players less valuable.

Any nba contender is going to have to salary match. It makes it harder to cleanly upgrade. Most teams cant generate 50+ mil of non-essential outgoing contracts.

You lose bird rights so, you basically wave bye-bye to resigning them. The Tigers could resign Skubal next year if they wanted to.

Less mlb teams make the postseason so theres more deadline sellers.

So it all culminates in a situation where NBA teams just have many more reasons to keep a player and most teams arent having firesales.

An individual basketball player has more impact on their teams results than any individual baseball player does, even more than Ohtani. Basketball also has inherent scarcity of athletes due to the height minimum. Finding a human that is athletic enough, skilled enough, and tall enough to play in the NBA is extremely difficult because there just aren’t that many of them on the planet at any given time.

Because an NBA superstar moves the needle much more. They are 1 of 5 players on the court and are involved in every single play both offensively and defensively An MLB player is 1 of 9 players on the field and not involved in action nearly as much, so impact is limited. Just scarcity and supply/demand.

They tend to be bigger so they cost more

NBA there are 5 guys on the court at one time and the roster size is about half

A lot more impact one player can make compared to the MLB

5 players on the court. If one of those is prime LeBron you go to the finals. If you have the best player in MLB you could still be the worst team in the league. 

NBA players simply have way more individual impact.

A single top tier player can turn a team from lottery bound to competitive.

That simply isn’t true in baseball. It mostly isn’t true in football either, save maybe the smallest list of transcendent qb’s.

If the MLB allowed draft pick trading you’d see some crazy deals.

Skubal is a free agent in three months.

A single nba player has more impact on the game due to the minutes they play and being 5 on 5.

Prospects have way more value in the MLB

If you go on NBARAPM and look at the top 5-6 guys this decade by RAPM, they’ve been perennial contenders. This includes years where their team was kinda meh (exception being Steph, since his team has legitimately stunk for the past 2 seasons).

The best baseball players basically have NBA role player impact on winning

I truly believe nothing’s going to change. This is just an excuse for owners to hoard more money while continuing to do less.

NBA has a salary cap, and we still have teams like the Kings that are still omega dogshit

the mlb has more roster spots and game-in-game-influences than the nba so you can plug in cheaper talent more easily.

48% of a teams revenue is divided up amongst 13 man rosters. MLB have way larger rosters and more people the cash must be divided amongst. 

Ohtani can only take 5 shots per game and pitch ¹⁄₅ of the games. Ignoring marketing, the mlb has a limit of usage.

There are multiple teams in the NBA trying to win a championship as though it is their main goal. There is one in MLB. Detroit is 2.5 games out of the playoffs this year and they gave up the best pitcher in the game.

A single superstar player in the NBA has much more impact on a team’s success than arguably any other sport (of the big 4 that is)

MLB stars are making what they’re worth. NBA superstars are not (because of max salaries) so that contract is worth a lot. Without max salary NBA stars would be on much bigger salaries and would be worth less as trade assets.

NBA teams are half the size of MLB teams, for one.

That’s also because 5 players take the court, versus 9 taking the field. The top players inherently have more value when they’re 20% of the on-court product, versus 11% of the on-field product.

Skubal was a rental and young players in the MLB have tons of team control. Plus, stars don’t impact the game in MLB nearly as much as stars in the NBA do. It’s an apples to oranges comparison.

Individual players have less impact because of how many more players it takes to field a team.

Skubal plays once every fifth game.

Prospects are HIGHLY valued in baseball. The Dodgers also have one of, if not, the best farm systems in the league. There is a high probability those prospects will turn out to be something useful and they get to go to a team who may actually use them.

Basketball is like 3 tiers ahead of baseball in athleticism and skill required. Baseball is just the most approachable every day man American sport and part of our heritage. The bball players deserve every penny, not that the crazy baseball schedules are not without value.