With minutes to spare at trade deadline, Dodgers land Jack Flaherty

Tigers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty delivers during the first inning of a game against the Guardians last Wednesday.

Staff Writer

July 30, 2024 Updated 7:54 PM PT

SAN DIEGO — It took until the final minutes before Tuesday’s trade deadline, but the Dodgers finally landed the impact pitcher they so desperately coveted.

In a deadline-day deal with the Detroit Tigers, the Dodgers acquired veteran starter Jack Flaherty in exchange for two prospects, adding the 28-year-old right-hander and Harvard-Westlake product to a short-handed pitching staff in need of a frontline reinforcement.

In Flaherty, the Dodgers hope they have found it.

The eight-year big leaguer is 7-5 this season with a 2.95 ERA, which would be his lowest in a season since receiving Cy Young Award votes in 2019. He has 133 strikeouts in 106 ⅔ innings, finding renewed success this year with his fastball-curveball-slider arsenal.

And for the Dodgers, he represents a legitimate option to start postseason games — possibly featuring alongside Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone, Clayton Kershaw and (if he recovers in time from a shoulder injury) Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a potential playoff rotation.

“You look at the guys that were moved across baseball, he’s pretty much the top of the food chain as far as starters,” manager Dave Roberts said. “So I think for what was out there, we did a great job.”

Entering Tuesday, the Dodgers had interest in Flaherty and Chicago White Sox ace Garrett Crochet, according to people with knowledge of the situation who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

Though Crochet was seen by most evaluators as the more talented pitcher — the hard-throwing left-hander leads the American League in strikeouts — he was also a more complicated acquisition.

There were concerns over his career-high workload. He reportedly wanted a contract extension from any team that traded for him to pitch in October. And, with two years of remaining team control, the White Sox didn’t have to move him, either.

Mostly, though, the White Sox were driving a high price, according to a person with knowledge of the situation, desiring top prospects, such as catcher Dalton Rushing, that the Dodgers were reluctant to include in the deal.

That’s why, by Tuesday afternoon, the Dodgers’ search for another starting pitcher shifted primarily to Flaherty, a past trade target of the team who has been having a resurgent season with the rebuilding Tigers, including a 1.77 ERA over his last eight starts.

“We felt like getting an impact starter was a very high priority for us, and Jack is definitely that,” general manager Brandon Gomes said. “His command, his stuff, the swing and miss, we feel like that’s a real power option come October. So he fits into this rotation really well.”

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox were also reportedly interested in Flaherty, who has rebounded from his 4.99 ERA with the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles last season.

And as the top rental pitcher available on the market — Flaherty is on a one-year, $14 million contract this season and will be a free agent in the winter — the expectation was that acquiring him would be pricey; especially after the Toronto Blue Jays got three prospects from the Houston Astros for fellow rental starter Yusei Kikuchi on Monday.

But after an afternoon of negotiations, the Dodgers had to part with only a couple of midtier prospects: catcher Thayron Liranzo and shortstop Trey Sweeney.

Liranzo was the club’s No. 8 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, but was blocked at the position by Rushing and Diego Cartaya (not to mention big league catcher Will Smith, who signed a 10-year extension in March). Sweeney was the team’s No. 22 prospect, after being acquired in an offseason trade from the New York Yankees, but had been bypassed in some evaluators’ eyes by Alex Freeland as the farm system’s best shortstop talent.

Flaherty does have some health-related questions that might have affected his value on the trade market. The pitcher has dealt with back issues each of the last two seasons, and was forced to skip two starts while receiving injections for lower back pain earlier this summer.

According to a report from the Athletic, the Yankees backed out of a potential Flaherty trade earlier Tuesday because of concerns over his medical records.

Roberts wasn’t asked directly about Flaherty’s back prior to Tuesday’s game, but said generally that “it seems like he’s healthy and thriving.”

Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris also downplayed the issue while discussing the Flaherty trade Tuesday.

“Jack is healthy,” Harris reportedly said to media members in Detroit. “If we didn’t trade him, he was going to start for us on Thursday.”

Flaherty doesn’t have the most overpowering fastball, though his 93.5-mph average velocity this season has represented a slight improvement compared to his 2023 struggles.

What Flaherty does possess is a devastating slider-curveball combination. He generates whiffs on 39% and 44% of swings with each pitch, respectively. That has helped him rack up 133 strikeouts against only 19 walks this season, and keep his WHIP (walks and hits per inning) to a stellar 0.956.

“You get a player,” Roberts said, “that’s having a huge year.”

Before agreeing to the trade for Flaherty, the Dodgers did explore one other pathway to bolstering their pitching staff, maintaining interest in Miami Marlins closer Tanner Scott, according to a person with knowledge of the situation but not authorized to speak publicly, before he was dealt in a blockbuster trade to the San Diego Padres.

Shortly after the Flaherty trade, news emerged about one last deal the Dodgers did strike: In a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays, the team swapped reliever Ryan Yarbrough (who was designated for assignment on Monday) with veteran center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, a four-time Gold Glover who plans to retire at the end of the season.

In all, Roberts said the team’s five total deadline additions — on Monday, the Dodgers also acquired utility players Tommy Edman and Amed Rosario, as well as reliever Michael Kopech — had “certainly raised the floor” of the roster.

“To have guys that are versatile, that can move around, it just gives us some coverage and quality ballplayers that can defend,” Roberts said. “I still think there’s a lot of questions [with players on the injured list]. But I think we have some answers now.”

“We moved the needle,” Roberts added, “I think, in a lot of ways.”

No acquisition, however, was as impactful as Flaherty.

It might have taken until the final minutes, but the Dodgers addressed their biggest deadline need just in time.