San Francisco Giants May Look to Sign World Series Hero From Hated Rival

The San Francisco Giants could get involved and make a bid for one of the top free agents remaining.

Brad Penner-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants were seen entering the offseason as a team likely to add starting pitching in order to help a starting rotation that ranked 18th in the league in 2024 in ERA among starters.

While a massive Corbin Burnes acquisition seemed almost imminent - and would have been the perfect ace at the top of the Giants rotation -Burnes shocked everyone and took a smaller, though still huge, contract to go to the Arizona Diamondbacks. It being his state of residence likely played a major part in that decision.

Not landing Burnes stung, but having him wind up in the NL West for likely the remaining productive years of his career was downright brutal.

Still in need of pitching, perhaps San Francisco could now rectify the hurt of losing Burnes to a division rival by turning around and stealing a different divisional rival in Jack Flaherty of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Though there hasn't been a ton of noise to this point connecting Flaherty to the Giants, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com named San Francisco as a team that's at least somewhat involved in the pursuit of the veteran.

"A number of other teams also remain in the mix for Flaherty including the Giants, Blue Jays, Tigers and Cubs," Feinsand wrote after ironically putting the Baltimore Orioles - Burnes' old team - as the favorite.

The Dodgers acquired Flaherty at the trade deadline after he signed a one-year contract with the Detroit Tigers and pitched the best he has in his entire career. Through 18 starts with the Tigers, Flaherty had posted an ERA of 2.95 with a WHIP of 0.956 and a dazzling 133 strikeouts in 106.2 innings pitched.

Once he was traded to the Dodgers at the deadline, he cooled off a bit but still finished the year with an ERA of 3.17 and 194 strikeouts in 162 innings pitched.

Helping Los Angeles to their second World Series title since the Giants last tasted the ultimate glory of a championship, ownership has to be growing impatient.

The possibility of a Flaherty reunion with the Dodgers is essentially out after the defending champs took Blake Snell from San Francisco, so perhaps the Giants may be able to get one back by signing the eight-year veteran.

Flaherty is certainly a significant notch below the initial goal of Burnes and likely doesn't clear Logan Webb as the team's ace, but he would be a solid addition to a rotation that is simply in need of quality arms. It may not be the massive splash fans were looking for in terms of a starting pitcher, but the Giants absolutely should give it a shot to bring in Flaherty.