Dodgers acquire Jack Flaherty from the Tigers, manage to fill gaping rotation hole

Chad Moriyama 07/30/2024 Transactions Leave A Comment

After making a couple of floor-raising trades yesterday to plug a few of the roster’s holes, Andrew Friedman and the Dodgers front office basically had one mission today: acquire a starting pitcher they could turn to in the playoffs.

With the time ticking down on the deadline and Dodger fans understandably getting increasingly nervous, the Dodgers landed their guy in Tigers right-handed starter Jack Flaherty in exchange for prospects Thayron Liranzo and Trey Sweeney.

After a quick start to his career that saw him looking like one of the best young pitchers in baseball, Flaherty has had an up-and-down time since the pandemic. A lot of that was due to shoulder issues that saw him make just eight starts in 2022 and may have led to his 4.99 ERA in 2023 as well. But finally healthy in 2024, he was determined to bounceback, and that he has, posting a 2.95 ERA, 3.11 FIP, and 2.95 xERA in 106.2 innings. Notably, he has set a career-high in K% at 32% and a career-low in BB% at 4.6%, which is a pretty simple recipe for success.

Surprisingly, his stuff hasn’t noticeably jumped, rather his command has simply been great. His Location+ is 104 (league leader is 108), which he uses within a five-pitch mix that includes a sinker and change, but that’s dominated by his fastball (44%), knuckle curve (19%), and slider (31%). Hitters have found all three of those pitches difficult to deal with, and while the Dodgers don’t really need to tinker with him, I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw him throwing even more breaking stuff during his time here. The bottom line is Flaherty has been a Top 15 pitcher in baseball at worst this year.

Flaherty is currently on a one-year, $14 million prove-it deal and he’s certainly doing that, but he’s a rental for a team that needed one.

In return, the Dodgers gave up two prospects in catcher Liranzo and shortstop Sweeney. By most pre-season rankings, including Bruce’s, that’s a Top 10 and a Top 20 type of guy in the system, and if anything they may have fallen a bit since.

Neither have exactly set the world on fire in 2024. In his age-20 season in high-A, Liranzo has a .220/.344/.356/.700 line, and has played a lot of first base during his time there. The 82 strikeouts across 314 plate appearances are especially concerning, but the upside for a potential slugging catcher is definitely in there and the bar is low for the position if he can stick there.

Sweeney was just acquired this past off-season for Victor Gonzalez and Jorbit Vivas, and he’s been solid but unspectacular in his age-24 season in AAA, slashing .255/.334/.427/.761. Despite the Dodgers’ roster leaking like a sieve, they never deemed him ready for a shot, which is probably telling that he didn’t have much of a role in the org.

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While the prospects are likely to produce more value in a vacuum than Flaherty due to the difference in control years, the fact is that neither seemed to have a place in the Dodgers’ plans. Both catcher, first, and designated hitter are locked down for Liranzo, and if the Dodgers weren’t going to give Sweeney a shot at short this year, it seems unlikely they would hand him the job at any point.

That makes it an utterly reasonable price to pay for Flaherty, especially within the context of looking around the league at the other trades for pitching and considering the Tigers knew the Dodgers were desperate to make a move. Most importantly, Flaherty fills a glaring hole in the rotation and is certainly pitching like a borderline ace this year. It’s a move the Dodgers had to make, and the cost wasn’t exorbitant, so a tip of the cap to Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes for pulling this one off.

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