Former Detroit Tigers Pitcher Projected To Cash In on Lucrative Multi-Year Deal
The Detroit Tigers are one team that is going to be in the market for some starting pitching help this offseason.
Anchoring their staff is soon-to-be American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal. It is nice to have a player of his caliber as your ace, but the depth behind him could certainly use some help.
Injuries played a big part in manager A.J. Hinch only having Skubal as a starter for stretches of the second half. He did what he could mixing and matching openers for bullpen games and bulk inning guys behind them, but that isn’t a sustainable recipe for success.
Another reason the team was so short-handed was that they were sellers ahead of the deadline. One of the players who they moved from Jack Flaherty.
He was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, whom he helped win the World Series in five games over the New York Yankees.
There aren’t many players who capitalize on the 2024 season as much as the righty. He signed a one-year deal with the Tigers ahead of the campaign and is probably going to parlay that into a massive multi-year deal.
Just what kind of contract can Flaherty expect? As shared by Kiley McDaniel of ESPN, he is projected to land a five-year, $115 million deal. The $23 million AAV would put him in a tie with Robbie Ray of the San Francisco Giants for No. 15 among starting pitchers.
“Flaherty's 2024 performance was much more in line with the strong start to his career than his 2023 struggles before hitting free agency last winter. In short, he improved his fastball shape, used it in the zone more to get ahead, then threw more breaking balls out of the zone for chases. It sounds simple, but baseball can be simple. Flaherty is younger than the other elite starters on the market but has just one recent season of this level of performance along with merely average fastball velocity (93.4 mph), so his longer-term prospects are more as a No. 2 or No. 3 starter than potential ace, thus the lower projected AAV than Corbin Burnes and Blake Snell -- but still on a five-year deal,” the MLB expert wrote.
Even if he doesn’t project to have ace production, Flaherty has shown that he can be dominant for stretches. He would be a great fit in Detroit should the two sides want to reunite for a second consecutive offseason.
His market should be a strong one. A lot of teams need starting pitching and he is one of the best available this offseason. Flaherty did an excellent job rehabbing his value after an underwhelming 2023 season with the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles.
Kenneth Teape is an alumnus of SUNY Old Westbury and graduated in 2013 with an Honors Degree in Media Communications with a focus on print journalism. During his time at Old Westbury, he worked for the school newspaper and several online publications, such as Knicks Now, the official website of the New York Knicks, and a self-made website with fellow students, Gotham City Sports News. Kenneth has also been a site expert at Empire Writes Back, Musket Fire, and Lake Show Life within the FanSided Network. He was a contributor to HoopsHabit, with work featured on Bleacher Report and Yardbarker. In addition to his work here, he is a reporter for both NBA Analysis Network and NFL Analysis Network, as well as a writer and editor for Packers Coverage. You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @teapester725, or reach him via email at teapester725@gmail.com.