The Los Angeles Dodgers made a huge, some say season-saving, move at the trade deadline when they acquired starting pitcher Jack Flaherty from the Detroit Tigers. Funny enough, the Flaherty trade sweepstakes came down to the New York Yankees and the Dodgers, who would eventually meet in the World Series.
Flaherty anchored the Dodgers rotation down the stretch as Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a plethora of young pitchers missed time with injuries.
But Flaherty is a free agent now and he can sign wherever he would like.
Bleacher Report’s Zachary Rymer expects him to stay in Los Angeles, though not with the Dodgers. Rymer predicts Flaherty will sign a four-year, $88 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels this winter.
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“There haven’t been many solid rumors concerning Flaherty, but ESPN’s Jeff Passan is the one who floated New York and Washington as good fits for him. The player himself, meanwhile, doesn’t want to leave Los Angeles if he can help it,” Rymer wrote. “If that can be taken to mean the area more broadly, then the Angels fit him just as well as the Dodgers. And between the two, the Halos certainly need him more.”
The Angels have a big need in the starting rotation. Many expected them to sell all of their big players and enter a full-scale rebuild, but the front office in Anaheim doesn’t want to do that, so they’re expected to buy this winter.
With other teams focused more on the bigger players, the Angels could very easily slide in and acquire Flaherty while everybody else is worried about Juan Soto and Corbin Burnes.
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