Jack Flaherty To Return To The Detroit Tigers On A Two-Year Deal

Jack Flaherty is back in Detroit, this time with a World Series ring.

Flaherty and the Tigers have agreed on a two-year, $35 million contract pending a physical that includes an opt-out clause after the 2025 season, a move that returns Flaherty to the site of his career turnaround and also takes perhaps the top remaining starter out of the free agent pool.

Flaherty is to earn $25 million in 2025, with a $20 million salary and a $5 million signing bonus, a total that places him in the top 10 in average annual value among major league pitchers. He could add another $20 million via a reachable incentive in 2026. His $10 million base salary in 2026 would double if he makes 15 starts this season.

The market for starting pitching slowed before the holidays after big names Blake Snell, Corbin Burnes and Max Fried went off the board early. All signed long-term deals with an AAV at least $27 million. Like Fried, Flaherty is represented by Creative Artists Agency.

Flaherty’s new deal puts him near that range, and he could look to build on that if he chooses to opt out and test free agency for the third straight offseason.

With veteran Max Scherzer signing with the New York Mets on Thursday, right-hander Nick Pivetta appears to be the top remaining free agent starter available.

“We love Jack,” Detroit general manager Scott Harris said when free agency opened in early November. “I’ve said it a million times. He’s a freakishly gifted athlete who has an intense work ethic and just demonstrated his adjustability. Personally, I really enjoyed getting to work with Jack.”

Now the work resumes.

The first Flaherty-Tigers union last season was a win-win.

Flaherty, working on a one-year $14 million contract, regained the form he showed while winning 19 games with a 3.01 ERA in his first two full seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2018-19 and the Tigers made the playoffs for the first time in a decade.

Flaherty was 7-5 with a 2.95 ERA in 18 starts in four months in Detroit. His strikeouts rate (32 percent) and walk rate (4.56) were so effective that he was among the most coveted starters at the July trade deadline.

The Dodgers acquired Flaherty for a pair of minor league prospects including Trey Sweeney, who replaced Javier Baez as the starting shortstop down the stretch.

Flaherty immediately became an integral piece of a Dodgers’ rotation beset by injuries and occasional ineffectiveness, going 6-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 10 regular-season starts.

He was 1-2 in five postseason starts, the most memorable in a 9-0 victory over the Mets in Game 1 of the NLCS in which he gave up two hits — both singles — and struck out six.

Flaherty started the Dodgers’ World Series-clinching 7-6 victory over the New York Yankees in Game 5, although he gave up four runs and got only four outs before being replaced.

He looks to slot into the No. 2 spot in a Tigers’ rotation headlined by unanimous 2024 Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, who was 18-4 with a 2.39 ERA and 228 strikeouts while leading the AL all three categories, a pitcher’s triple crown.

“I love Jack,” Skubal said in a Jan. 25 appearance on ‘Foul Territory’ on the MLB Network. “He’s a hell of a talent. If there’s a guy I want on the mound that’s not me on our team, I want him on the mound.

“He has the respect of the guys in that clubhouse. I’d love to have him back.”

Flaherty’s return should help solidify a rotation that Tigers’ manager A. J. Hinch massaged down the 2024 stretch, when he used openers and and played bullpen matchups early and often after losing Flaherty while dealing with injuries.

Right-handers Reese Olson, rookie Jackson Jobe and free agent signee Alex Cobb are expected to fill out the starting staff, with Casey Mize in the mix. Olson was 4-8 with a 3.35 ERA last season, and with Skubal were the only Tigers with more than 20 starts. Jobe is considered among the top prospects in baseball.

Pitching coach Chris Fetter and assistant pitching coach Robin Lund were credited with Flaherty’s improvement a year ago by adjusting his pitch mix to remove a cut fastball and refine his body mechanics.

Flaherty, a Los Angeles native who was the Cardinals’ first round draft choice in 2014, was squeezed out in Los Angeles this winter after the Dodgers used the free agent marketplace to reload.

The Dodgers signed premier free agent Snell to a five-year, $182 million contract that includes a sixth-year option, and added coveted Japanese League prospect Roki Sasaki with a $6.1 million bonus from their international pool.

Shohei Ohtani also is expected to return to the rotation after spending all of 2024 as a designated hitter, although his timetable is unclear. Clayton Kershaw also appears likely to re-sign with the Dodgers.

Flaherty joins a Tigers’ free agent class that includes Cobb, second baseman Gleyber Torres and reliever Tommy Kahnle. All sighed one-year contracts.

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