What Are The Baltimore Orioles Getting With Their New Pitcher?
The Baltimore Orioles lead the American League with a 66-42 record. They’ve done it with an inexperienced starting rotation. However, the addition of starting pitcher Jack Flaherty who came over at the trade deadline with the St. Louis Cardinals finally gives the Orioles some experience at the position.
What Does Jack Flaherty Bring To The Orioles?
With a younger and inexperienced starting rotation, Flaherty is a veteran player and can pitch a lot of innings. He made his major league debut in September 2017 for the Cardinals. In his first full season in 2018, he finished the year with an 8-9 record and 3.34 earned run average in 28 starts.
Flaherty found even more success in 2019. He finished the season with an 11-8 record and 2.75 ERA including a third best in the majors 0.91 ERA following the All-Star break. Flaherty earned Gold Glove honors and finished fourth in the National League CY Young award voting.
The Cardinals made him their opening day starter in 2020, but his ERA was nearly at five in nine starts during the shortened season. Flaherty bounced back in 2021 despite injuries causing him to miss time. He ended the season with a 9-2 record and 3.22 ERA. He was still dealing with lingering shoulder injuries in 2022 and only made eight starts for the Cardinals.
As St. Louis became sellers at the trade deadline due to being a last place team, Flaherty became a piece they were willing to move. He has not found his 2019 form yet but is still a solid pitcher. Flaherty is 7-6 this year with a 4.43 earned run average. He’s kept home runs to a minimum, but has had some inconsistencies with control and is walking batters at an 11% rate.
Final Thoughts
There were definitely bigger names the Orioles could have gone after including Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, or Lucas Giolito. While these players might have given the Orioles more success this season, the price tag would have been steep. To bring in Flahery, Baltimore had to give up infielder César Prieto, left-hander Drew Rom, and right-hander Zack Showalter. Prieto is the Orioles 16th top prospect while Rom is their number 18 prospect. This means the Orioles are still in good shape for the foreseeable future with all their other top prospects remaining.
Jack Flaherty will make his Orioles debut today at 3:07pm Eastern Time as Baltimore wraps up their three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in Toronto. He’ll face off against former Oriole Kevin Gausman who is 8-5 in 2023 with a 3.10 ERA. The Orioles are looking to take the series after dominating the first game 13-3 before losing the second game 4-1. All eyes will be on Flaherty as he shows what he can bring to the team.
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