The Detroit Tigers and right-hander Jack Flaherty have agreed to a one-year contract worth $14 million, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.
Flaherty, 28, split last season between the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles. In 29 total appearances (27 of them starts), he accumulated a 4.99 ERA (86 ERA+) and a 2.24 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His contributions were worth 0.8 Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball Reference's calculations.
For his career, Flaherty has notched a 109 ERA+ and a 2.94 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He finished fourth in National League Cy Young Award voting in 2019.
CBS Sports recently detailed why Flaherty was not included among our top-50 ranking of the winter's free agents. Here's part of our explanation:
To Flaherty's credit, he continued to manage quality of contact -- this season marked the third in four tries that he's posted an average exit velocity against under 88 mph. To his debit, well … there's everything else. His strikeout and walk rates have moved in the wrong direction, and it's even hard to find hope on a granular level. To wit, he used four pitches at least 5% of the time this season -- the second-lowest batting average against among the bunch was .290.
Flaherty slots into a Tigers rotation that seems likely to include Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning, and fellow free-agent signing Kenta Maeda. Detroit has several other rotation options that could factor into the equation, with former No. 1 pick Casey Mize serving as the most notable of those pitchers.
The Tigers have also acquired outfielder Matt Canha in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers and signed lefty reliever Andrew Chafin.
Detroit finished last season in second place in the American League Central with a 78-84 record. The Tigers were nine games behind the Minnesota Twins.
