Red Sox Likely To Pursue $60 Million Dodgers Ace After Dominant NLCS Performance

Big game pitchers are at a premium nowadays...

Apr 28, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; A hat and glove of an Los Angeles Dodgers player durng a game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images / John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

The Boston Red Sox should be in the business of going after dominance on the pitching mound. They, along with everyone else in Major League Baseball, saw it on Sunday night.

Game 1 of the National League Championship Series went down at Dodger Stadium, and L.A. native Jack Flaherty was the story of the evening. The Los Angeles Dodgers starter threw seven shutout innings, striking out six and allowing just two hits, to help down the New York Mets 9-0.

Flaherty's brilliant performance helped extend the Dodgers' scoreless innings streak to 33, the longest by any team in MLB postseason history.

Of course, the Red Sox want to be playing baseball at this time of year, but not watching it. They haven't earned that right for the past three years, thanks in large part to poorly constructed pitching staffs that always ran out of gas at the end of the season.

If Boston wants to be back in title contention next season, they must add a pitcher of Flaherty's caliber. And who better to sign in that case than... Flaherty himself?

Flaherty, who turns 29 on Tuesday, was a workhorse this season, posting 162 innings across 28 starts. He had a combined 13-7 record, 3.17 ERA, and 194 strikeouts (10.8 K/9). Opposing batters hit just .223 against the right-hander.

Flaherty was also high school teammates at Harvard-Westlake in Southern California with Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito who will be returning to the Boston rotation after missing all of the 2024 season with an elbow injury.

It became known toward the end of this season that Boston and its first-year Chief Baseball Officer had been hot on Flaherty's tail last winter, even when he was coming off a down year. He ended up signing a one-year, $14 million deal with the Detroit Tigers (he was then traded to L.A.), but will likely get far more on the open market this time around.

Spotrac currently projects Flaherty for a three-year, $60 million deal. There's no telling how much higher his actual contract figure could come in if several teams engage in a bidding war, and his postseason performance could certainly help his cause.

The Red Sox cannot be afraid to swim in those waters. They must prepare a competitive offer for Flaherty early in the winter and be ready to up it if the bidding gets chippy.

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