LA native was acquired by the Dodgers from Detroit at the 2024 trade deadline. Flaherty heads back to the Tigers with a 2-year deal that guarantees $35 million, including a player option for 2026.
Jack Flaherty was acquired by the Dodgers at the trade deadline and won a World Series with his hometown team. Now he has a new deal with one of his old teams, agreeing to terms with the Tigers on a reported two-year, $35 million contract.
Jeff Passan at ESPN was first to report the signing, and noted Flaherty can opt out after the 2025 season. Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic added that Flaherty will receive $25 million this year, and the player option is $10 million with bonuses built in.
— Jack Flaherty (@jflare_) February 3, 2025
Flaherty had a 3.17 ERA and 3.54 xERA in 28 starts this season, with 194 strikeouts and 38 walks in 162 innings. He ranked fourth among qualified pitchers with a 29.9-percent strikeout rate, and was fourth in strikeout-minus-walk rate (24 percent) as well.
The Dodgers acquired Flaherty from the Tigers on July 30 in exchange for shortstop Trey Sweeney and catcher Thayron Liranzo. The right-hander had a 3.58 ERA and 4.16 FIP in 10 starts with Los Angeles, with 61 strikeouts and 19 walks in his 55⅓ innings.
He had mixed results in the postseason, a jumble of great (seven scoreless innings in NLCS Game 1) to good (two runs in 5⅓ innings in World Series Game 1) and very bad (eight runs in three innings in NLCS Game 5, then four runs with only four outs in World Series Game 5). In total, Flaherty allowed 18 runs in 22 innings in October, though the Dodgers won three of his five starts. But he was very much needed, one of only three healthy starting pitchers the Dodgers had left standing during the postseason.
“This is unbelievable,” Flaherty said during the Dodgers championship parade through Los Angeles on November 1. “I love this city. I never want to leave.”
Ultimately though, with Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki signed as free agents, and the returns of Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May, and Shohei Ohtani to the mound, rotation space was limited in Los Angeles for Flaherty.
“I’m not going back to L.A., you can do the numbers, do the math,” Flaherty said in an interview on Foul Territory on January 23. “It doesn’t bother me. I can go elsewhere and win, and see if we can beat those guys.”
Because Flaherty switched teams during the season, he was ineligible to receive a qualifying offer in November. So the Dodgers won’t be receiving any draft pick compensation now that he signed elsewhere.
Flaherty, who turned 29 in October, has a 3.63 ERA, 3.91 FIP, and 112 ERA+ in his eight major league seasons, with 942 strikeouts and 292 walks in 829⅔ innings for the Cardinals, Orioles, Tigers, and Dodgers.