The Braves must bolster the rotation. It’s just a matter of how Alex Anthopolous wants to go about it.
Not only will Atlanta be without Spencer Strider for a portion of the 2025 campaign, but the club could also have to replace the starts from Charlie Morton and Max Fried. There’s a chance that the former returns on a one-year deal, putting off retirement, but the latter is overwhelmingly expected to sign elsewhere in free agency.
Generally speaking, Anthopoulos does his best work through the trade market, but that doesn’t mean he’s not willing to dip into the waters of free agency. There are several tiers of starting pitchers to choose from if that’s what Atlanta’s GM decides.
Bleacher Report’s Tim Kelly predicts it’ll be through free agency, with the Braves replacing Max Fried by way of a three-year deal worth $60 million with an opt-out after 2026 for Jack Flaherty.
Ironically, Flaherty replaces his high school teammate in Atlanta in this scenario. He looked prime to be one of the best pitchers in baseball when he finished in the top 5 of the NL Cy Young voting in 2019 at just 23 years old. But as we’ve so many times before, injuries and consistency issues plagued him.
Over the next four seasons, he posted an unsightly 4.42 ERA between 2020 and 2023. It culminated in Baltimore when he was traded at the 2023 deadline. With the Orioles, Flaherty posted an awful 6.75 ERA and entered free agency following a postseason loss to the eventual World Series champion Rangers.
In free agency, the Tigers ended up taking a risk by giving him a one-year, $14 million deal last offseason. It couldn’t have worked out better for both sides. In a season split between Detroit and Los Angeles, Jack Flaherty would go onto post a 3.17 ERA across 162 innings while helping his hometown team to a World Series.
The Braves don’t usually pay sticker price for anything, so any deal for Flaherty would be with the idea that he can be even better than he showed in 2024. Who could argue either? The ceiling of a deal like this is astronomically high.
Entering his age 29 season, perhaps the most attractive thing about Flaherty’s free agency is that the Braves wouldn’t have to give up draft compensation by signing him because he wasn’t eligible for a qualifying offer after the midseason trade.
The contract he signed with the Tigers seems much more like an Alex Anthopoulos move, but I think there are plenty of reasons the Braves could still pursue Jack Flaherty this offseason.
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Photographer: John Cordes/Icon Sportswire
