LA loss: Dodgers star considered jumping ship to…
Will the Los Angeles Dodgers find a way to keep Jack Flaherty in town for the 2025 season and beyond?
It’s too early to know, but there surely will be a lot of interest in his services.
The free agent market is full of top-tier pitching talent and Flaherty showed in 2024 that he deserves a multi-year deal worth big money to be a front-of-the-rotation starter for a contender. He shined down the stretch after being acquired by the Dodgers and is a big reason why the club was able to win its second World Series since 1988.
Now, he will be highly sought-after in free agency. It’s too early to know where he will land, but there will be plenty of options. One team that was floated as a fit is the Chicago Cubs by The Athletic’s Tim Britton, Chad Jennings, and Aaron Gleeman.
“For his sake, Flaherty hopes being a postseason Game 1 starter for a World Series champion translates better in this iteration of free agency than it did for Jordan Montgomery last year,” Britton, Jennings, and Gleeman said. “Flaherty lived the pillow-contract dream in 2024: He signed a one-year deal with Detroit, pitched like an ace for four months, got traded to Los Angeles and pitched well enough to help anchor the rotation to a title.
“The peripherals are really where Flaherty shined. Among free-agent starters, he owns the best strikeout-to-walk ratio and the second-best strikeout rate (behind Blake Snell). Plus, he’s the only starter hitting free agency while still in his 20s — another perk of sticking to a one-year deal last winter…Best fits: (Boston Red Sox), (Chicago Cubs), (Los Angeles Angels).”
Chicago is a team that isn’t far away from making some noise in the National League and an addition of Flaherty could help with that. Hopefully, the Dodgers find a way to keep him instead.
