L.A. native Jack Flaherty excited by ‘special’ Dodgers opportunity, downplays back concerns
SAN DIEGO — Jack Flaherty wasn’t exactly hoping the Dodgers would trade for him this week.
When the Los Angeles native, Harvard-Westlake product and childhood Dodgers fan first learned he was being sent to his hometown team, the sentimental meaning didn’t immediately hit him either.
“It’s kind of the business of the game,” said Flaherty, the resurgent veteran pitcher the Dodgers acquired from the Detroit Tigers for two prospects minutes before Tuesday’s trade deadline. “You end up where you end up.”
A day removed from the uncertainty of the deadline, however, Flaherty was already feeling grateful to have ended up in L.A.
“It didn’t really sink in until I got on the phone with my mom yesterday and she brought up some things,” Flaherty said Wednesday, in his first media scrum as a member of the Dodgers. “I think everyone deep down wants to play for their hometown team. [So] getting the opportunity to is just special.”
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Flaherty will make his Dodgers debut on Saturday in Oakland, manager Dave Roberts announced Wednesday. After that, he’ll be expected to continue the strong first-half form he displayed in Detroit, where he went 7-5 with a 2.95 ERA to become the best pitcher moved at this year’s deadline.
The Dodgers will need that level of production, hopeful that Flaherty will reinforce a starting rotation that has been decimated by injuries and lacking many obvious postseason options.
“You want to be part of a team with those expectations,” Flaherty said. “That’s what I came up with in St. Louis, expecting to win, wanting to win, being a part of that. If they bring me in for that, then hopefully I can contribute in as many ways as possible.”
Indeed, Flaherty has experienced postseason pressure before.
As a Cy Young candidate with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2019, when he had a career-best 2.75 ERA, he made three starts in the club’s run to the National League Championship Series.
“That second half, he was just about the best pitcher in baseball,” recalled Tommy Edman, a former teammate of Flaherty with the Cardinals and fellow Dodgers trade deadline acquisition.
While Flaherty made another October start in the 2020 wild-card round with the Cardinals, as well as one relief appearance last year with the Baltimore Orioles, he entered this year seeming unlikely to contribute to any postseason rotation.
The right-hander had fallen on hard times at the end of his Cardinals tenure, missing most of 2022 with a shoulder injury before posting a 4.43 ERA during the first half of last season.
A deadline trade last July to the Orioles didn’t help much either. Flaherty finished the season in Baltimore’s bullpen, after struggling for much of August and September. In the offseason, he signed a one-year, $14-million contract with the rebuilding Tigers — a bet of sorts on himself to revive his eight-year MLB career.
“Mentally you make some changes and physically you make some changes,” Flaherty said of the changes he has made this season, in which he has a career-high strikeout rate (133 in 106 ⅔ innings) and the lowest WHIP of his career (0.956).
“My close group, we dove into some things about the way I was moving and fixing some of that,” Flaherty added. “Those changes made the ball come out better and my stuff move better. Once I signed with Detroit, we just kind of worked on the same things. Then mentally, just being in a better place and having more confidence and trusting your stuff is one of those things that’s really important.”
That self-belief was on display in a different way Wednesday, as well, with Flaherty downplaying worries about back issues he has dealt with the last two seasons.
Twice this summer, Flaherty had to miss starts with the Tigers and get pain-relieving injections because of back tightness. Shortly after the deadline on Tuesday, the Athletic reported that the New York Yankees backed out of a potential trade for Flaherty earlier in the day because of concerns over his medical records.
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Flaherty didn’t comment on that report on Wednesday, but insisted that “all I know is I feel great.”
“I’ve felt great since we got back from the [All-Star] break, or even right before that,” added Flaherty, who dealt with his most recent back flare-up in early July.
“I’m very comfortable,” echoed Roberts. “Training staff says he looks great and feels good.”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman also seemed to minimize concerns about Flaherty’s health Wednesday, telling SNY that, “at the end of the day, I would have brought Jack Flaherty in if I could have matched up [with the Tigers on a trade].”
Instead, it was the Dodgers who swung the last-second blockbuster, welcoming a hometown pitcher they hope can solidify their pitching staff for a long October run.
“Just being a part of this organization, how good this team is, and how good they’ve been for years,” Flaherty said, “it’s just special.”
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