The Chicago Cubs went the short-term, opt-out route with Cody Bellinger and it paid off with his 2023 NL comeback player of the year award and his flip to the New York Yankees in a trade this offseason.
Bellinger needed a deal like that because his value was at an all-time low after the 2022 season, when he was non-tendered by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
That isn’t the case with free agent starting pitcher Jack Flaherty. But he now appears open to going that route, too.
Spring training is a month away and, per The Athletic, Flaherty is one of two high-profile free agents willing to go the route of players like Bellinger in signing a deal with a shorter term that includes a higher average annual value and opt-outs in the contract.
Three other high-profile free agents had to go that route last offseason — Blake Snell, Matt Chapman and Jordan Montgomery. They, along with Bellinger, were represented by agent Scott Boras.
Snell and Chapman parlayed their short-term deals into longer-term deals this offseason. Snell snagged a five-year, $182 million deal with the Dodgers. Chapman re-signed with the Giants for six years and $151 million.
Flaherty signed a one-year, $14 million deal a season ago. He may not command the short-term deal that Snell received from the Giants last offseason, which was two years for $62 million, with an opt-out after the first year.
But, as the top starting pitcher on the market, he and his representatives at CAA could use that as leverage to increase his salary in the short term and give him the chance to re-explore the market later.
He also happens to be a bit younger than Snell (32 years old) and Chapman (31 years old), so the right-hander has the time to take that sort of deal and cash in later.
For the Cubs, getting Flaherty, even for a year, slots in him into a rotation with Justin Steele, and Shota Imanaga at the top and allows the Cubs to sort through Jameson Taillon, Javier Assad, Matthew Boyd, Jordan Wicks and Ben Brown as additional options.
Flaherty is entering his age 29 season at a time in which his value has never been higher. He’s coming off a career year in 2024, in which he went a combined 13-7 with the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had a 3.17 ERA, with 194 strikeouts and 38 walks in 162 innings.
The former first-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals made his MLB debut in 2017 with the Cards and played most of his career there until he was traded at the 2023 deadline to the Baltimore Orioles, where his performance tailed off.
He has a career record of 55-41 with a 3.63 ERA, with 942 strikeouts and 292 walks in 829.2 innings. He has a lifetime 10.2 strikeout rate per nine innings.
