Jack Flaherty Projected To Betray Dodgers For $60 Million Deal With NL Contender
The Los Angeles Dodgers have built quite the star-studded pitching rotation led by Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, and now, Blake Snell.
What does this mean for the 2024 trade deadline acquisition, Jack Flaherty? While the door is still open for Flaherty to return to the Dodgers, it’s not open very wide. Given Los Angeles’ needs in the outfield and the bullpen, it’s tough to imagine the Dodgers investing heavily into the starting rotation. Unless it’s Corbin Burnes they’re pursuing, but that’s a different discussion.
Bleacher Report’s Tim Kelly predicts Flaherty will be leaving Los Angeles this winter, opting to sign with a different National League contender instead.
“There’s definitely injury risk with Flaherty, who pitched a total of 299 innings between 2020 and 2023 after a breakout 2019 season. That’s why our projection for him is a three-year, $60 million deal. Any longer than that would be too much of a gamble with his health history,” Kelly wrote. “As far as where Flaherty could land, the Braves — who could lose (Max) Fried and Charlie Morton in free agency and aren’t sure when Spencer Strider will be ready to return to the mound — make sense as they try to keep pace with the (Philadelphia) Phillies and (New York) Mets in a crowded NL East.”
Flaherty to Atlanta makes sense no matter what. The Braves will be trying to re-sign their starter, Fried, and signing Flaherty works well as a complement to Fried or a replacement if they lose the lefty.
Given the injury history, Flaherty is going to be much cheaper in free agency than players such as Burnes and Fried. With the holes on Atlanta’s roster, it would be a better fit to spread the money to multiple positions, as they would do by signing the Dodgers’ righty.
Leave a Reply