By Tim Britton, Tyler Kepner and Chad Jennings
Los Angeles Dodgers get: RHP Jack Flaherty
Detroit Tigers get: C/1B Thayron Liranzo; SS Trey Sweeney
Tim Britton: Oh, the deadline is just minutes away? Yep, that means it’s about time to learn the Dodgers made the biggest splash in the starting pitching market. Los Angeles did it for Yu Darvish, then for Max Scherzer, and it’s doing it again for Jack Flaherty.
Theoretically, the Dodgers’ rotation should be fine. Tyler Glasnow has been everything they could have wanted when they traded for him, and they’ve got Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But those last three are either injured or recently back from being injured, and Flaherty was one of the only starters moved at the deadline who you could write into a postseason rotation with ink. Following several disappointing seasons with St. Louis and a disastrous post-deadline performance with Baltimore, he’s rediscovered the form that landed him in the top five in the Cy Young balloting back in 2019. Only George Kirby and Zach Eflin have better strikeout-to-walk rates this season, and those guys aren’t punching out better than 30 percent of dudes like Flaherty. He’s a SoCal native, too, which perhaps helps ease this transition more than the one last year.
In exchange for a rental, the Tigers are tapping into LA’s huge surplus of catching prospects with Liranzo. He’s holding his own as a switch-hitter in High A, and like so many others, his future depends on his ability to stick behind the plate. Baseball Prospectus included him in its top 100 back in the spring. Sweeney, a shortstop and a 2021 first-round Yankees pick, went to the Dodgers for Victor González in the winter. He’s had a solid first go-round at Triple A and is closer to making a major-league impact, though maybe not as an everyday player. It’s not quite what the Blue Jays landed for a worse pitcher in Yusei Kikuchi, but that just shows how aberrational that return was.
Dodgers: A-
Tigers: A-
Tyler Kepner: It was imperative that the Dodgers get another starter, and they found their man in Flaherty, a free-agent-to-be who comes home to Los Angeles. After four mostly frustrating seasons (4.42 ERA) following his 2019 breakout campaign for St. Louis, Flaherty has found his inner ace with the Tigers. Like Tyler Glasnow, he’s posted a sub-1.00 WHIP and more than 11 strikeouts per nine, and he’ll slot in at or near the top of the battered L.A. rotation. Liranzo — a catcher who ranked No. 99 on Keith Law’s pre-season Top 100 prospect list for The Athletic – represented the Dodgers at the Futures Game. He won’t block the just-promoted Dillon Dingler behind the plate in Detroit, since he recently turned 21 and hasn’t hit much in the Midwest League, but he showed tantalizing potential last year with Rancho Cucamonga: .273/.400/.562 with 24 home runs. If he hits like that, the Tigers will surely find a spot for him eventually. Sweeney has hit just .250 in the minors, with too many strikeouts, but he’s a fast outfielder who hits left-handed and has 13 homers in Class AAA this season.
Dodgers: A
Tigers: A-
Chad Jennings: The Tigers took a $14-million risk on Flaherty this offseason, and turned four good months into a borderline Top 100 prospect in Liranzo plus a former first-round pick in Sweeney. Neither is a slam dunk to become a big league regular, though Liranzo’s power gives him ample ceiling and the fact Sweeney is in Triple A suggests a useful floor. Still, not bad a few million bucks and four months’ worth of good pitching.
The real impact obviously is for the Dodgers, who addressed their infield issues with a couple of trades on Monday and got their impact arm right at the buzzer on Tuesday. Flaherty is a rental, but this is a good time for the Dodgers to rent. Flaherty is pitching as well as ever, which is saying something considering he finished fourth in Cy Young voting five years ago. He forms a mighty one-two punch with Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw just returned to big league action, and the Dodgers could have Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Walker Buehler back by the end of the season. This is the addition of a team that expects to be in the World Series.
Dodgers: A
Tigers: A-
(Top photo of Jack Flaherty: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images)
