Right-hander Jack Flaherty and the Detroit Tigers are in agreement on a two-year, $35 million contract, sources told ESPN on Sunday, reuniting one of the best remaining free agents and the team with which he resurrected his career last season.
The deal, which is pending a physical, includes an opt-out after this year, in which Detroit will pay Flaherty $25 million. The second year guarantees Flaherty $10 million and can be worth $20 million if he starts at least 15 games.
As free agency entered its fourth month, with the long-term-contract market for the 29-year-old Flaherty never having developed, he went back to a familiar place with the Tigers, who gave him $14 million last winter. The $25 million salary this year is among the 10 highest for starting pitchers in 2025.
Flaherty’s numbers warranted a jump into that strata. In Detroit, he started 18 games and posted a 2.95 ERA and nearly a 7-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Flaherty minutes before the trade deadline and saw him throw the most postseason innings of any of their pitchers en route to a World Series win.
The best of Flaherty’s playoff performances with the Dodgers earned some attention around the league as he accomplished what he set out to do last offseason: re-establish himself after injuries and ineffectiveness slowed down what looked like a top-of-the-rotation track.
Flaherty threw 151 innings of 3.34 ERA ball as a rookie in 2018 and followed with a fourth-place Cy Young performance when he was the best pitcher in baseball during the second half of 2019. Injuries waylaid Flaherty in 2021 and 2022, and when he returned in 2023, he was still toying with a cutter and figuring out his pitch mix.
Detroit, and Comerica’s Park large dimensions, worked well for Flaherty, a flyball pitcher. Although the Tigers surged to a postseason berth after dealing Flaherty, his time with the Tigers and Dodgers was productive, lowering his regular-season ERA from 4.99 in 2023 to 3.17 over 162 innings with 194 strikeouts and 38 walks. In doing so, Flaherty earned a rare dual accomplishment: playoff shares from two different teams.
The deal adds Flaherty to a rotation that already includes American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal as well as right-handers Reese Olson, Casey Mize and Alex Cobb, who signed a one-year, $15 million deal this winter. Detroit also has right-handers Matt Manning and Keider Montero as well as right-hander Jackson Jobe, arguably the best pitching prospect in baseball.
Other top free agent pitchers have opted for two-year deals with mixed results. Flaherty’s contract guarantees him $10 million more than the one signed by Jordan Montgomery last year, but Montgomery guaranteed himself $22.5 million this year by reaching a games-started threshold. Carlos Rodon‘s two-year, $44 million contract with San Francisco in 2022 guaranteed more but necessitated 110 innings to opt out — which Rodon reached before signing with the New York Yankees.
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