When the Los Angeles Dodgers traded for two-time Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal this past trade deadline, there were no guarantees that he would be on the roster beyond October.

As is the case with any acquisition, there is a certain level of risk involved. However, when the player being acquired is among the best pitchers in baseball on an expiring contract, a team looking to add a third championship in as many years will almost always take that chance.

As Skubal approaches free agency, his contract prediction looms almost as large as his resume, with some experts foreseeing a deal in the half-a-billion dollar range.

In other news, Skubal's would-be deal would not be the only money the Dodgers throw around this offseason, not just because of their many free agents, but because of a major contract extension that should be prioritized this winter. All-Star centerfielder Andy Pages is just entering arbitration eligibility, but the Dodgers could look to buy out his arbitration years and first few free agency years to lock him up for years to come.

Finally, the Dodgers are always linked to the top talent emerging from Japan given their track record with past players, a Japanese-born manager and even Los Angeles being the city with the highest population of Japanese citizens in the contiguous United States. This winter, 18-year-old pitcher Shoki Oda is reportedly expected to continue the trend and sign with the Dodgers, according to the California Post's Dylan Hernandez.

"And while people familiar with his situation insist he hasn’t made a decision, the widespread expectation around the industry is that 18-year-old Shoki Oda of Japan will end up with the Dodgers," Hernandez wrote.

What makes the phenom pitcher unique, aside from his 97 mph fastball clocked as the fastest in the history of the Japanese high school Koshien tournament's history, is that he has still never played professionally. If Oda does, in fact, forego the Nippon Professional Baseball and enter MLB (which he can only do after a new collective bargaining agreement is inked), he would be the first to ever do so, likely opening the door for more amateur Japanese stars looking to take their talents to North America.

Here’s all the latest Dodgers news and stories (click the headline for the full article):

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