Ranking Ex-Dodgers SP Jack Flaherty's Top 6 Landing Spots in MLB Free Agency

Jack Flaherty revived his career in 2024, a season he split between the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers. In 28 starts, he posted a 3.17 ERA and 3.47 FIP and logged 162 innings.

His postseason resume was a mixed bag, but he won a World Series with the Dodgers, the team he grew up rooting for.

Still only 29, Flaherty couldn't be saddled with a qualifying offer because he was traded during the season. So any team that signs him wouldn't have to give up draft compensation.

On the other side of things, between finishing fourth in NL Cy Young Award voting as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2019 and his tremendous 2024 season, Flaherty struggled to stay on the mound. From 2020 to 2023—time spent with the Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles—Flaherty pitched a total of 299 innings, posting a 4.42 ERA.

So for as much as there is to like about what he has shown at his best, the right-hander is hardly a sure thing. At the outset of the offseason, B/R's prediction for Flaherty was a three-year, $60 million deal with the chance to opt out after the 2026 season. Whether he gets that deal as we get closer to spring training remains to be seen.

But the music is starting to slow down, and there's a limited number of chairs remaining.

The Dodgers signed Blake Snell and have a slew of arms such as Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May set to return from injuries. Teams with major needs in their starting rotation, like the Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox, seem unlikely to spend what it will take to sign him, even if the price drops.

So that means either one of a few obvious suitors remaining will get him, or a team that seems like a questionable fit will wind up swooping in.

With all that acknowledged, here are six teams that could sign Flaherty.

Dylan Cease has been mentioned as a trade candidate for much of the offseason. Given that he's entering his contract year, this is not particularly surprising, considering he could command more than $200 million next offseason.

If San Diego general manager A.J. Preller makes one major subtraction like that, he's probably not going to just rest on his laurels given how crowded the NL West is. If you trade Cease, adding Flaherty on a multi-year deal would be a good pivot. Even if the deal allows Flaherty to opt out as soon as after the 2025 season, the Padres would still have the ability to extend a qualifying offer to him and recoup draft compensation next winter.

Flaherty may not be Cease, but if you get the 2024 version of him to go along with Michael King and Yu Darvish, the Padres could still be a scary team in the NL postseason.

The Dodgers seemingly will be moving on from Flaherty, but what about the other team that calls Los Angeles home (well, sort of)? Flaherty attended Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles, so if not the Dodgers, the Angels would be the next-closest team to where he grew up.

The Angels have been active this offseason in acquiring veterans, with general manager Perry Minasian either trading for or signing Jorge Soler, Yusei Kikuchi, Kyle Hendricks and Travis d'Arnaud.

With two veteran starting additions to go with José Soriano, Tyler Anderson and Reid Detmers, the Halos may very well be set in their rotation. But considering both Hendricks and Detmers struggled a season ago, manager Ron Washington probably wouldn't mind having six starters going into the season. After all, pretty much no one makes it through the campaign using only five starters.

Ultimately, this may come down to whether owner Arte Moreno authorizes another relatively large expenditure. The reality, though, is that the Angels have had nine consecutive losing seasons, and Moreno is 78 years old. Whether the addition of Flaherty would make the Angels a playoff team in 2025 or not, it would represent perhaps their best remaining path toward being relevant for the first time in years.

With many of these teams, pursuing Flaherty at this stage of the offseason will come down to ownership opening up the checkbook. The Ricketts family has often acted like the Cubs are a mid-market team despite them being from, you know, Chicago.

The NL Central is wide-open in 2025, though, with the St. Louis Cardinals seemingly taking a step back and the Milwaukee Brewers losing both Willy Adames and Devin Williams this offseason.

Getting greedy after a disappointing 83-win season to open the Craig Counsell era would be a wise strategy for president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer, who is perceived by some to be on the hot seat.

Chicago has already pulled off one of the major moves of the offseason by acquiring Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros, giving a lineup that had a lot of good players a potentially great one.

With Chicago having already signed veterans Matthew Boyd and Colin Rea, the guess here is the Cubs won't make another move in the starting rotation. But Boyd made eight starts last year as he returned from Tommy John surgery. Javier Assad pitched well out of the starting rotation last season but has a history in the bullpen and could be shifted back to relief at some point.

A starting rotation headlined by Shota Imanaga, Justin Steele and Flaherty would give the Cubs a lot of buzz heading into a season they hope will send them to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

Before the Orioles signed Charlie Morton to a one-year, $15 million deal earlier this month, a return to Baltimore—where Flaherty pitched the second half of the 2023 season—seemed to make a ton of sense.

The O's are probably set after signing both Morton and Japanese righty Tomoyuki Sugano. However, the former is 41 and the latter is 35. Both Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez come with injury concerns. If Kyle Bradish pitches after Tommy John surgery last June, it will be after the All-Star break.

Having lost Corbin Burnes—who logged 194.1 innings in 2024—Baltimore still could really benefit from another arm, even if it would create a surplus at the outset of the season.

Beyond that, general manager Mike Elias has made his name as a great drafter, both in Baltimore and previously with the Houston Astros. He will get a pair of comp picks back for Burnes and Anthony Santander after they declined qualifying offers, and signing Flaherty wouldn't affect that since he wasn't eligible for a QO.

With that said, if Flaherty has another strong year and opts out after 2025, the Orioles could extend a QO to him next winter and recoup more draft compensation when he leaves in free agency.

The Braves were B/R's original prediction for Flaherty when the offseason began, and considering they've lost both Morton and Max Fried this winter, Atlanta still makes a ton of sense for the 29-year-old righty.

On paper, the Braves starting rotation could be one of the best in baseball. However, Spencer Strider is returning from an internal brace procedure that cost him almost all of the 2024 season and won't be ready for Opening Day. Meanwhile, Chris Sale and Reynaldo López carry quite a bit of injury risk.

Admittedly, Flaherty has hardly been an ironman in his career, but he'd give them another front-line option if Strider has a setback and/or one of Sale or López goes down at some point.

And if the Braves—who got a breakout season from Spencer Schwellenbach in 2024—end up with six or seven starters, so be it. As they found out last season, health can be fleeting in baseball. And they'll need over five starters to edge out the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets in the NL East.

The Tigers took a chance on Flaherty last offseason with a one-year, $14 million deal coming off a few rough years. The pact played out very well for both sides, and a reunion might make the most sense of any scenario.

Yes, post-Flaherty, the Tigers went on a shocking run not only to the postseason but past the Astros in the ALWCS. However, reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal is the only person in their projected 2025 rotation who logged more than 115 innings last season.

They did sign veteran Alex Cobb to a one-year, $15 million deal, but he's 38 and made just three starts last regular season. Reese Olson, Jackson Jobe and even Casey Mize remain interesting young arms, but Detroit needs another pitcher who has proved he can pitch at a front-line level to pair with Skubal.

Not long ago, the Tigers were one of the more aggressive spenders in baseball. Following up on their first trip to the postseason in a decade, they've made short-term additions like Cobb and Gleyber Torres. Bringing Flaherty back could prove to be a short-term addition also, but with the possibility of him being part of a talented rotation for multiple years.