The Braves 2024 season ended in disappointment with a second place finish in the NL East and a 2-0 sweep at the hands of the San Diego Padres. The Braves had some injury issues this past season, with Ronald Acuna only playing 49 games and Spencer Strider only pitching 9 innings on the season before going down with a season ending right elbow injury, which luckily didn’t result in him having to have Tommy John surgery.

With 2025 on the horizon and the Braves looking to bounce back, their rotation is a question going into the season. They will return Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez and Spencer Schwellenbach, but will be without Strider for at least a month. Max Fried and Charlie Morton, both starters from last season have moved on to new teams and the Braves will need to bring someone in to finish out the rotation. A guy who can do just that and help carry the Braves rotation until Strider is himself again is Jack Flaherty.

Flaherty has an electric start to his pro career. In his first two full seasons starting he had a combined nine WAR for the St. Louis Cardinals and was on his way to being the next great Cardinal starter. He finished fifth in the rookie of the year voting in 2018, finishing the year with 182 strikeouts, a 3.34 ERA and a 3.2 WAR. Then in his sophomore campaign he really took off. He finished the year fourth in Cy Young voting and thirteenth in MVP voting. He had a 2.75 ERA, 231 strikeouts and just 55 walks all while throwing 196 innings.

However, his next four seasons were all filled with injuries that hindered him. He only pitched over 100 innings twice and never broke 150 innings in any of the four seasons. He signed a one year, fourteen million dollar deal with the Tigers before the 2024 season.

Flaherty looked like his old self for the 2024 season. He pitched 162 innings between the Tigers and the Dodgers, who he was traded to midseason. He again was showing that he could be a top pitcher in baseball. He struck out 194 batters, while walking only 38 giving him a strikeout to walk ratio of 5.11, the highest of his career. He had a 3.17 ERA on the season, which was the second best of his career and a 3.1 WAR, good for the third best of his career. If Flaherty can stay healthy and be the pitcher he was in 2024 again, he can help bolster any rotation and help take a team to the playoffs.

With all of that said, enter the Atlanta Braves. The Braves, as I stated earlier, need at least one more arm in their rotation. Strider is out at least the first month of the season and that is if everything goes right. Then add in time for him to get back to himself and it could be longer.

Then with Fried and Morton both gone, they are left with just three proven starting pitchers to start the season until Strider is back. For a team with World Series aspirations, in a division with the Phillies and Mets and in a league with so many good teams, you can’t afford to start too slowly. Flaherty would step in on day one and give the Braves another strong starting pitcher and when Strider came back, would give the Braves one of the better starting rotations in the NL with Sale, Strider, Flaherty, Lopez and Spencer Schwellenbach.

The Braves are a team that needs another starting pitcher and Jack Flaherty is sitting right there waiting for them. He can step in and help them keep the team at or near the top of the NL East until Spencer Strider comes back. He isn’t going to be cheap for the Braves, but that shouldn’t be an issue for them. He has been wanting a five year deal, but most think he will end up getting a three or four year deal, potentially with some options. Flaherty could help take the Braves over the top, especially come playoff time, when they would have five legit starters.