The Los Angeles Dodgers are in as good of a position as any team in Major League Baseball. They have more money to spend, prospects to trade, and a loaded roster. While they have more than one free agency question to answer, what they’ll do with Jack Flaherty is among the most intriguing.
Flaherty, arguably the Dodgers ace in the postseason due to the many injuries they dealt with on the mound, would be a tough loss. The Dodgers signed Blake Snell, and some injured pitchers are expected to be back in 2025, but Flaherty is an excellent arm who gave them value when it mattered most.
The right-hander will have suitors in free agency and should get paid handsomely, given the previous deals to starters.
R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports believes he’ll land with the Boston Red Sox, predicting the California native to return to the American League East.
“Flaherty’s market might be dictated by the downstream effects of where Burnes and Fried sign. As such, we’re tentatively penciling in the Red Sox doubling-up on top-10 free agents by pairing Bregman and Flaherty,” Anderson wrote on December 9.
Red Sox Want Starting Pitching
The Boston Red Sox are among the handful of teams that could impact who the Los Angeles Dodgers sign this winter. Boston is expected to invest heavily in the top players on the market, making them a likely suitor for Flaherty.
Pitching is an area they need to improve, with Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow saying it’s their biggest need this winter.
“Starting pitching is our biggest area of need,” he said in December, according to Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic.
“We’re having a ton of conversations with free agents, with teams, thinking about any number of paths to improving that,” he added. “We have both a need for improving the quality and also the depth. Nobody has yet solved injury prevention and if we find ourselves in a situation where some of our starters start to miss time or start to regress, we want to make sure there isn’t a massive drop off for what we have available. We also want to make sure we are improving the quality and targeting guys who are pitching at the front of the rotation.”
What the Dodgers Could Do to Replace Flaherty
Unlike many other teams in Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers would be ready to spend if Flaherty departed. They’ve shown they want to win, and to get back to the top, the Dodgers plan to spend more than ever.
With Flaherty potentially leaving, Roki Sasaki would be the perfect replacement. Sasaki can only sign for up to $7.5 million due to international rules and is considered one of the best pitchers in the world.
The Dodgers never have an issue with money, but signing Sasaki for just $7.5 million would be something they’d never say no to.
Anderson predicted they’d sign the right-hander, a move that could make the Dodgers’ staff even better in 2025, pending health.
“Sasaki is younger than 25 years old and has fewer than six years of professional experience, meaning he’s classified by MLB as an amateur free agent. That designation restricts his earning potential, limiting teams to offer only what they have in their international amateur free-agent bonus pool.
“Relatedly, Sasaki won’t sign until international bonus pools reset on Jan. 15, giving more teams more money to throw his way. The “wide open” nature of the bidding makes Sasaki the rare premium free agent who could (and should) draw interest from all teams. Even so, we’re sticking by the team long regarded as the favorites,” Anderson wrote.
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Dodgers Predicted to Cut Ties With WS Champion Ace in Free Agency