LOS ANGELES — If the Los Angeles Dodgers are truly downplaying their interest in the Tarik Skubal sweepstakes, they are saying the right things.

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They have pledged faith in their rotation returning to full strength, with Blake Snell midway through a rehab assignment and Tyler Glasnow set to start one soon.

They have repeatedly stressed that the left knee soreness plaguing Shohei Ohtani is not a long-term issue and that he will pitch again this season.

And they have reiterated through president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and manager Dave Roberts that they don’t believe there is an obvious need to address before MLB’s Monday trade deadline.

But are they to be believed?

As Scott Harris and the Detroit Tigers agonize over whether to trade their prized ace, the Dodgers — at least in the eyes of rival executives — have the best chance to pull off another blockbuster acquisition. The usual reasoning applies: The Dodgers have the best prospects to offer, their robust farm system can handle a significant hit, and they certainly aren’t limited by finances.

Still, the back-to-back champions have downplayed their interest in acquiring the back-to-back American League Cy Young winner, should Skubal become available. That was true once more Wednesday, when Friedman addressed Ohtani’s health. The two-way star disclosed Tuesday night that neither his knee nor his right biceps — which he tweaked swinging a bat shortly before the All-Star break — was “at 100 percent.”

“I don’t think (Ohtani) puts it in an acute need at all,” Friedman said in a media session before the Dodgers’ 4-2 win over the Seattle Mariners. “We’re confident he is going to come back. Again, if there was something structural, then we would be much more concerned with that. But there’s not. And the fact that it does keep improving suggests that we’re on the right path and feel very confident that he will be back.”

The Dodgers have said Ohtani’s knee pain is due to inflammation. Ohtani has said that inflammation is a product of his pitching mechanics, likely correlated to how he lands after his delivery, and that it does not impact his hitting. He received a lubricant shot over the All-Star break to alleviate some of that inflammation and acknowledged that at this point in the season, there’s no reason to rush a return.

“The knee is getting better, and the goal is to get to the 100 percent mark. But I do have to focus on the hitting side, the position-player side of things,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton.

“It’s really something that I have to just deal with over the course of the season.”

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The Dodgers, at least publicly, say Ohtani’s absence is short term and that he’ll pitch in October. Their concern, Friedman said, is that should he pitch through his knee pain, Ohtani would inadvertently overcompensate somewhere else, leading to another, more serious injury. With the Dodgers’ division lead padded to double digits, there’s no reason to push Ohtani, he explained. Friedman also downplayed the severity of Ohtani’s sore biceps, saying that would not deter him from taking the mound if his knee were in a better spot.

“Subconsciously, we didn’t want to put him in a position where he was altering his mechanics to try to protect the knee in any way,” Friedman said. “If it weren’t for the knee, he would be pitching right now. He would be making his regular turn.

“Does he feel 100 percent in his arm? No. But neither does any pitcher in late July.”

Still, there is no timetable for Ohtani’s return to a mound, and Snell (elbow surgery) and Glasnow (back spasms) are coming off long-term injuries. Because of this, it’s plausible to believe the Dodgers trading for Skubal is a much more realistic scenario than Los Angeles is letting on. It’s important to note the Tigers say they have not yet decided on Skubal. He pitched Wednesday, allowing three earned runs over 6 2/3 innings while notching his 1,000th career strikeout. Then Detroit blew a 7-0 lead and lost to the Baltimore Orioles in extra innings, 10-9. The Tigers dropped to 6 games out of the AL Central lead and 4 1/2 games out of the final wild-card spot.

But the Dodgers are a threat simply because they are one of the few organizations with the ability to swing a trade of this caliber without detracting from their future. This can help them in negotiations and can drive up the price for rival clubs, such as the Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs. The Dodgers have an assortment of young, controllable arms and a deep pool of highly touted prospects. If the Tigers are looking to capitalize on a prospect return, they need look no further than Los Angeles’ farm system, consistently regarded as one of the top in the sport.

The counterargument: Friedman despises overpaying at the deadline. “(We’ve) tried to make a really concerted effort to be really aggressive in the offseason to avoid having an acute need in July,” he said. “Because when you have an acute need, it’s really challenging, because you’re paying 150 cents, 200 cents on the dollar.”

That’s still the case, even with the Dodgers’ desire to win their third straight World Series and the looming possibility of financial limitation likely in the next collective bargaining agreement. But the Dodgers lurk for a reason, and Ohtani’s health could be the driving factor, despite their insistence otherwise.

Ohtani has not been shut down. Results from an MRI taken during the All-Star break confirmed no structural damage. He will remain in the lineup as the designated hitter. He is throwing plyo balls, and Friedman said he expects Ohtani to begin catch play next week. But that timeline is fluid.

“The images are something that suggests we’re good to proceed. His feedback is it doesn’t bother him when he hits. It’s much more about the landing and pitching,” Friedman said. “This is about the knee and making sure that we can get it to a place where there’s just no compensation. Exactly when that is, I’m not sure. But I feel confident that relatively soon, he’s going to start getting out and start ramping up for catch play and bullpens and getting him back.”

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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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