Alexander: By bringing Jack Flaherty home, Dodgers saved the trade deadline
By acquiring the former Harvard-Westlake standout, they made the big move, just before the 3 p.m. PT cutoff, that had eluded them the last couple of years.
“Organizational failure.”
We’ve heard that phrase – we’ve used that phrase, in fact – in describing the Dodgers the last two Octobers, for obvious reasons. But that phrase could also be applied to the trade deadline in those seasons, when the front office of Andrew Friedman, Brandon Gomes and Co. made moves on the margins but couldn’t swing an impact deal befitting a team aiming for a World Series championship.
This year? The story is still to be written, of course, but with five minutes left before Tuesday’s 3 p.m. PT deadline the news that Jack Flaherty was coming home to L.A. provided the sort of shakeup that they’d failed to make the last two deadlines.
In fact, this might be a little bit of overstatement but consider: By getting Flaherty from the Detroit Tigers for the No. 8 and No. 22 players in their farm system, high-A catcher/first baseman Thayron Liranzo and triple-A shortstop Trey Sweeney – neither among the top 100 prospects on the MLB.com list – the Dodgers stole him from the Padres in much the same way that Friedman swooped in and acquired Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from Washington before the Padres could get them in 2021.
Scherzer was a future Hall of Famer when the Dodgers got him, and Flaherty would probably acknowledge he’s not in that class. Kevin Kiermaier, acquired from Toronto for Ryan Yarbrough right before the buzzer, is a left-handed hitter with serious defensive chops in center field but not the five-tool player Turner represented when he arrived in Los Angeles.
But San Diego, 6½ games behind the Dodgers in the NL West going into Tuesday night’s head-to-head series opener, is gearing up for another run at the Dodgers. Padres general manager A.J. Preller bolstered the Padres’ bullpen significantly by adding left-hander Tanner Scott in the Marlins’ fire sale Tuesday, and also acquired right-handed reliever Jason Adam from Tampa Bay. And the chatter, at least among the MLB Network pundits following the last day swap meet, was that Preller was also trying to land Flaherty (7-5, 2.95 ERA, 0.956 WHIP in 18 starts for the Tigers), only to have Friedman get him first.
Again.
There are a couple of other ways to look at this. Flaherty was not the most enticing pitcher on Detroit’s staff, but landing Cy Young Award candidate Tarik Skubal (12-3, 2.35, 0.923 WHIP) would have required more of a haul in prospects than the Dodgers, or anybody else, were willing to spend.
And as for White Sox left-hander Garret Crochet? His usage limit in his return from Tommy John surgery likely had teams shying away, since he’s already made 22 starts with a 3.23 ERA and 1.006 WHIP (disregard the 6-8 won-loss record, considering the team he’s pitching for). But his apparent determination to not pitch in the postseason without a contract extension made him not worth the risk to any team pointing for October.
I wouldn’t have traded for him, either.
And while it’s neither here nor there competitively, it’s nice that the Dodgers have now brought two former SoCal high school stars back home. Hart High alumni have Tyler Glasnow to root for, and in the moments after Tuesday’s trade was announced this went up on Reddit: “Welcome home Harvard Westlake alumni Jack Flaherty.”
Welcome home Harvard Westlake alumni Jack Flaherty
byu/G24all2read inDodgers
This deal was mom approved, too. Eileen Flaherty posted a photo of the infant Jack, in a Dodger outfit, on X with this message: “Circa 1997 … Let’s Go!!!”
Circa 1997 …. Let’s Go!!! pic.twitter.com/YlI39KIx3Q
— Eileen Flaherty (@JackandGradyMom) July 30, 2024
Clearly, this is different from the Dodgers’ attempted trade with the Tigers a year ago, when Eduardo Rodriguez exercised his contractual rights and blocked the trade.
Overall, the Dodgers added Flaherty and Kiermaier on Tuesday, and reliever Michael Kopech and utility players Tommy Edman and Amed Rosario on Monday. Not necessarily impact additions – and in one sense Edman fits right in because he’s been hurt all year, too – but they’ll help a team caught between needing reinforcements right now and knowing that (a) there will be players returning from the injured list, and (b) at some point the biggest decision will involve where to play Mookie Betts.
(For the record: Going into Tuesday night, 16 players on the major league roster have spent 841 man-games on the Dodgers’ injured list so far this season. They currently have nine players on the injured list, plus a 10th in Bobby Miller trying to straighten out his mechanics in the minor leagues.)
And while you’re wondering, since there’s still no indication if or when third baseman Max Muncy might actually be able to swing a bat: Yes, I was also wondering if the Dodgers might have taken a stab at reacquiring Justin Turner before the Toronto Blue Jays traded him to Seattle on Tuesday. However, while Turner can still play third, he’s no longer considered a full-time third baseman. His other positions, first and DH, are already spoken for in Los Angeles.
If I had to grade Friedman and Gomes for their deadline efforts – knowing, of course, that the only true grade is “incomplete” until the season ends – I’d give them a B-minus. That’s still a full grade point above last year’s effort. (Thanks, Lance Lynn!)
We do grade on the curve, and since the Dodgers have more at stake their deadline performance will be assessed with a more critical eye. The Angels, sellers basically since the start of June, got a pair of promising prospects out of the Philadelphia system in exchange for closer Carlos Estévez last week. Pitchers George Klassen and Samuel Aldegheri are already the No. 3 and 8 players in the Angels’ system, respectively, according to MLB.com.
Tuesday the Angels added a journeyman reliever from the San Francisco Giants, Mike Baumann, for cash considerations, and later traded reliever Luis Garcia to Boston for four minor leaguers. Only one of those, Triple-A infielder Matthew Lugo, was among Boston’s top 30 prospects according to MLB.com’s rankings.
But the Angels’ position was more clear-cut this year, and there was no pre-deadline hot streak that seduced General Manager Perry Minasian into rolling the dice as he did a year ago, acquiring players that he subsequently had to put on waivers less than a month later to reduce payroll.
So give Minasian a B-minus, too, because of the Estévez trade.
jalexander@scng.com