The Milwaukee Brewers have spent this season matching the Los Angeles Dodgers stride for stride, from the race for MLB’s best record to the fight for the biggest names at the deadline, and the stakes only got sharper after the Dodgers swept them out of last year’s NLCS. That rivalry took another hit this weekend when Los Angeles landed two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, a move the Brewers were reportedly chasing themselves to pair him with ace Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison atop their rotation. Reporters wanted to know what Misiorowski thought about it. He wasn’t interested in saying.

“I’m good, so you can just stop the question,” he added with a smile, as per Talkin’ Baseball.

Pressed specifically on the Dodgers, who’d completed the deal for Skubal on Saturday, he held the same line, and the exchange ended in an awkward chuckle between him and the reporters at his locker.

The timing made the moment sting more. Misiorowski fielded the questions Sunday, less than 24 hours before Monday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline, fresh off being tagged with that day’s loss himself, allowing two earned runs in a 3-0 defeat to the Angels.

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The Brewers had real reason to want Skubal. Detroit ultimately sent him to Los Angeles for outfielder Zyhir Hope and right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith, a package that left plenty of people around the league wondering why Milwaukee’s reportedly deeper farm system didn’t win out instead.

Misiorowski himself is only 24 and playing on a one-year, $788,300 pre-arbitration deal, already an NL Cy Young frontrunner leading the league in ERA and strikeouts. Brewers fans had hoped Skubal’s experience alongside him would be the final piece for a real October run.

Angels broadcaster Wayne Randazzo said out loud what a lot of fans were thinking, calling out Milwaukee and other contenders live on air.

“How does this happen?” he said. “It feels like that’s a deal other teams could have made.”

Brewers manager Pat Murphy wasn’t willing to dwell on it either. He praised the Dodgers for their back-to-back titles but kept his own team’s focus narrow:

“I can’t worry about that. I need to worry about what we’ve got to do.”

That refusal to engage from both Misiorowski and Murphy hasn’t stopped the frustration from spreading well beyond Milwaukee’s clubhouse.

Dodgers’ blueprint goes beyond payroll

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic argued the Dodgers’ edge isn’t just about money.

“They are the industry standard, or close to it, in scouting, developing, trading and every other aspect of a baseball operation,” he said.

He was pointing to a “fearlessness” that could make them the first team to win three straight World Series since the 1998-2000 Yankees. He believes the Brewers had the prospect capital to win the Skubal bidding, but weren’t as aggressive as Los Angeles when it counted.

Fernando Álvarez offered a similar read, describing the Dodgers as a team that combines “resources, execution capability, and an absolute conviction to always go after the best available talent.” Money alone doesn’t guarantee success, he added, and pointed to the New York Mets’ roughly $350 million payroll producing a last-place finish in the NL East as the clearest counterexample, even as the Dodgers, spending only slightly more, sit among the league’s top two teams.

Both experts agree the frustration around this trade is real, but neither believes the Dodgers are doing anything against the rules, just doing the same things as everyone else, better.

The Brewers still lead MLB with the best record in baseball, and they still have hours left before Monday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline closes to make a move of their own answer to the Skubal blockbuster.