Jack Flaherty’s most recent outing against the Rangers was a disaster. Pitching on Saturday in front of a packed home crowd eager for Tarik Skubal bobblehead day — the day after Skubal flirted with perfection — Flaherty hoped to keep the momentum going. Maybe not matching Skubal’s brilliance, but at least delivering a solid performance to help the Tigers clinch a series win.
Instead, things unraveled quickly. Flaherty surrendered a leadoff homer to Josh Smith, followed by another to Corey Seager, putting the Tigers in an early 2-0 hole. Kerry Carpenter answered with a solo shot in the bottom half, but Flaherty couldn’t keep the deficit manageable. He gave up a third homer to Evan Carter, then a crushing two-run blast to Joc Pederson — who was hitless in his first 41 at-bats of the season and had yet to homer — before manager AJ Hinch had seen enough.
The Rangers had no trouble timing Flaherty’s fastball, which generated zero whiffs on eight swings. His whiff rate has plummeted from 23.9% to just 11% this year. He now leads the Tigers’ rotation in home runs allowed (9) and holds the highest ERA among the starters at 4.61.
Jack Flaherty looks like he’s lost all of his magic after Rangers’ home run fest against Tigers
If Jack Flaherty were going to fall apart, it would’ve made more sense last year, when the Tigers took a chance on him with a one-year, prove-it deal after a rough 2023 split between the Cardinals and Orioles. But Detroit seemed to have helped him rediscover his form before trading him to the Dodgers, and even after a long free agency, he looked sharp upon returning this season.
Landing Flaherty turned out to be a big win for a front office that had claimed it was done adding pitchers after signing Alex Cobb. His deal — \$25 million for 2025 with a \$10 million player option for 2026 — was also pretty reasonable.
Early in the season, Flaherty pitched well enough that it seemed likely he’d opt out and test free agency again for a bigger payday. But if this recent downturn snowballs into a full-on collapse, the Tigers could be looking at a contract nightmare for 2026.
There’s still plenty of baseball left, and Flaherty was performing well not that long ago, so it’s too early to give up on him. Still, starts like the one he had Saturday against the Rangers can’t keep happening. And the Tigers can’t endure another bad stretch like his last three outings. One fair point: the offense hasn’t helped him much — Detroit is just 1-7 in his starts, even though he’s allowed two earned runs or fewer in four of them.
