Free agent Jack Flahety suggested earlier this offseason that he was open to a reunion with the Detroit Tigers, his former team as recently as last season.
Sunday night, they took him up on it.
Flaherty announced the news cleverly of his new contract with the Detroit Tigers in a series of posts to his Twitter/X account. The deal — subsequently reported as a two-year, $35 million contract — is pending a physical.
The right-handed pitcher went 13-7 with a 3.17 ERA in 2024. After being traded by the Tigers to the Los Angeles Dodgers at midseason, Flaherty was tapped to start Game 1 of the World Series for the eventual champion Dodgers.
In a recent appearance on Foul Territory, Flaherty expressed his frustration with how his offseason has played out, and singled out one team he’d love to pitch for in 2025: the Detroit Tigers.
“I wanted to stay in Detroit,” Flaherty said of the team that traded him to Los Angeles last July. “We had had conversations. I loved it there. I thought the combo of me and Skub (Tarik Skubal) was incredible.”
Flaherty was 7-5 with a 2.95 ERA in 18 starts with the Tigers before he was traded at the deadline to the Dodgers, whose starting rotation was decimated by injuries. Detroit went on a stunning late-season run to grab an American League Wild Card berth.
More news: Dodgers’ World Series Starter: ‘Would Be Fun To Go Back’ to Team That Traded Him
Meanwhile, Flaherty went 6-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 10 starts to finish the regular season in Los Angeles. In the postseason, Flaherty was one of three starting pitchers — along with Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto — who carried the Dodgers all the way to the World Series, where they beat the New York Yankees in five games.
Flaherty told Foul Territory that he had been talking to a number of teams, including Detroit, but had yet to receive an offer. He said “it would be fun to go back” to Detroit. In a social media post of his own, Skubal seemed to agree:
Flaherty, 29, is 55-41 with a 3.63 ERA over the last eight years with the St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, Tigers and Dodgers.
Flaherty joins a deep starting rotation Detroit. The Tigers signed free agent right-hander Alex Cobb in December, adding him to a group that includes Skubal — the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner — Casey Mize, Reese Olson and rising prospect Jackson Jobe.
The last week has seen arguably the two best starting pitchers remaining on the free agent market agree to new contracts: right-hander Max Scherzer with the Toronto Blue Jays and now Flaherty with Detroit.
According to multiple reports, Flaherty’s contract will pay him $25 million this year between the base salary and signing bonus.
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