Red Sox Raid: Dodgers $100M Star Predicted to Join…

The Los Angeles Dodgers are living like kings right now, but soon, they’ll have to start thinking about a repeat championship.

Having won the 2024 World Series in dominant fashion, the Dodgers are now the only two-time champions of the 2020s. But they’re not going to be complacent with two, which means they have some tough decisions to make when trying to build the best possible roster.

One free-agent pitcher of particular interest to the Dodgers is Jack Flaherty. After coming to LA via trade at the July deadline, Flaherty was the most reliable starting pitcher the Dodgers had the rest of the way, eventually starting five playoff games, including the World Series clincher.

Now that Flaherty is on the open market, the Dodgers must decide whether to bring back the hometown kid or pursue bigger fish on the starting pitching market.

Zach Pressnell of FanSided seems to believe they’ll do the latter. Pressnell recently predicted that Flaherty would sign with the Boston Red Sox, joining his Southern California high school teammate, Lucas Giolito.

“Flaherty, like Fried, has direct ties to the Red Sox. Funnily enough, Flaherty was also high school teammates with Giolito and (Max) Fried. The dream, for both the Red Sox and the trio, would likely be to have all three pitchers on the same pitching staff. But that’s not too likely,” Pressnell said.

“If the Red Sox whiff on Burnes, which looks increasingly likely, they could comfortably fall back on Flaherty while saving more than $100 million to spend elsewhere.”

Flaherty, 29, has had an up-and-down career to this point, but the 2024 season was a high point. He struck out 194 batters in 28 regular-season starts, and his 3.17 ERA was his best since 2019. He also had two fantastic outings in the playoffs–Game 1 of both the NLCS and World Series.

Deciding whether to bring Flaherty back could be an underrated key to the Dodgers’ offseason. Big names like Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, and Roki Sasaki will be thrown around as possible impact signings. But unlike all those names, Flaherty has already been a part of a Dodgers championship.