Padres predicted to poach Dodgers' $32M two-time Cy Young winner in 'motivated' free agency move

Padres predicted to poach Dodgers' $32M two-time Cy Young winner in 'motivated' free agency move originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.The Los Angeles Dodgers have a lot of questions surrounding their offseason as a potential new agreement with the MLB could make them watch their payroll. If that is the case, all eyes are going to be on Tarik Skubal.The two-time Cy Young winner is a free agent for the first time in his career. The good news for the Dodgers is that Skubal enjoyed his time in LA.“The sense I get from people that he has talked to, is that he would love to be a Los Angeles Dodger. He loved his time in LA. I think it's a perfect marriage in LA," MLB insider Jim Bowden said.However, other teams are not going to go down without a fight in their pursuit of Skubal. The division-rival San Diego Padres are expected to be searching for starting pitching, especially following Michael King's latest free-agency decision.“Right-handed starter Michael King has declined the player option on his contract with the Padres to become a free agent, sources told MLB.com on Thursday. The club has not confirmed the news on King, who will now become one of the top arms on the market entering his age-32 season," MLB.com's AJ Cassavell wrote.For this reason, CBS Sports' Mike Axisa believes the Padres could poach Skubal from the Dodgers.“I'll go off the board a bit and say the Padres. The new ownership group didn't pay $3.9 billion for the franchise only to cheap out in their first offseason. They're moneyed and motivated, and that's usually enough to land the top free agents. It should appeal to Skubal too. The Padres are in the postseason most years, they play in a great (and largely pitcher-friendly) ballpark, and it's San Diego. How can you not love San Diego? Skubal to the Padres because the new owners want to make a big splash in their first offseason. That's my prediction,” Axisa wrote.Landing Skubal would be one of the biggest wins of the offseason for any team, and it would be even sweeter for San Diego knowing it took him away from its hated division rival. Skubal would then become the ace of another California team with an exciting brand of baseball.Skubal played on a $32 million contract last season that was split between the Detroit Tigers and Dodgers. San Diego is expected to be aggressive, but the biggest question is whether it will be enough to pry him away from LA.More MLB news:Blue Jays predicted to sign Yankees' two-time Gold Glove winner to replace George SpringerBraves predicted to sign $2.7M World Series champion, 26-HR slugger to pair with Ronald Acuna JrPadres predicted to sign $10.2M speedster Silver Slugger winner to pair with Fernando Tatis Jr.Yankees predicted to sign 39-HR Triple Crown winner to replace disappointing Ryan McMahon