Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Copyrighted by Sarah Morris, 2024
At the major league trading deadline, the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired right-handed starting pitcher Jack Flaherty from the Detroit Tigers. While Flaherty was crucial for the Dodger World Championship, the Dodgers should not re-sign Flaherty.
The Dodgers have a right-handed dominated starting rotation for the 2025 season. They will have Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani, Tony Gonsolin, and Dustin May, all right- handers. If they are healthy, they will make up the majority of the starting rotation. Clayton Kershaw should be the only left-handed starter if he recovers well from both knee and foot surgeries.
Why do the Dodgers need starting pitchers?
Well, nowadays, pitchers get injured almost daily in baseball. Most injured pitchers miss at least three months, and more than half miss the entire season or more. The Dodgers need starting pitching depth and will have a six-man starting rotation since Ohtani and Yamamoto are accustomed to pitching once every week.
During the postseason, Flaherty was inconsistent with his velocity. In one start, he was brilliant with good velocity, and then, in his start, he was awful with low velocity. The Dodgers blame Flaherty’s inconsistency on mechanical issues. At 29, Flaherty is due for a major arm injury. The Dodgers don’t need to sign a starter to a multi-year lucrative contract to spend about half of it on the IL.
As a Dodger, Flaherty was a solid pitcher with 6 wins, 2 losses, and a 3.58 in 10 starts. During the postseason, he had 1 win and 2 losses in 5 starts with a 7.36 ERA. This wasn’t good.
While Flaherty is an experienced starter who wants to go deep in each start, he won’t be worth what he will get on the opening market. The Dodgers can find a better value.
