St. Louis Cardinals: Jack Flaherty joins Bob Gibson with start to season

Entering the season, the St. Louis Cardinals needed Jack Flaherty to step up. He has more than delivered.

Flaherty, 25, has pitched like an ace. He is 8-0 with a 2.53 ERA and a 55/17 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He looks like a legitimate Cy Young Award candidate and has been a primary factor in the Cardinals starting 25-18 and leading the National League Central by 3.5 games. And his strong start to the season has put him in elite company among the Cardinals greats.

Bally Sports Midwest posted a graphic on a recent broadcast that compared his start to Bob Gibson’s 7-0 start in 1965. For the most part, Flaherty’s numbers have exceeded Gibson’s — a Hall of Fame pitcher — and his success this season has put the Cardinals squarely in the conversation to represent the National League in the World Series.

If Flaherty continues this level of success, and his stuff indicates that it should, he has set himself up for a significant contract extension. The two sides have briefly discussed an extension to no avail and even took Flaherty to an arbitration hearing to decide his 2021 salary, though Flaherty and his agents at CAA Baseball defeated the Cardinals in court.

There is one league executive who believes an extension could exceed $200 million. That number will largely depend on how Flaherty pitches the rest of the season, of course, but his performance has led the way for a Cardinals rotation that has exceeded expectations early on this season, and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak would be smart to sign him sooner than later.

It’s what the Cardinals had hoped for entering the season. And with Flaherty headlining the rotation, and Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt in the lineup, they have the pieces in place to make a deep postseason run.