This former Cardinals ace is being ignored in free agency

The 2024-2025 offseason is seeing numerous pitchers receive spiffy new contracts. From Max Fried to Blake Snell to Luis Severino, pitchers are getting paid more in free agency this winter than many experts predicted. But former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty has remained on the sideline as his peers are plucked up one by one, and there have been no reports of serious interest in his services from any team as we reach the latter half of January.

The league's apathy toward Flaherty is particularly head-scratching given that he is among the youngest free agent pitchers on the market, at 29. A potential reason for the indifference is his shaky medical track record. With the Cardinals, Flaherty suffered repeated shoulder injuries and, aside from his otherworldly second half of 2019, failed to reach the lofty ceiling that many had projected of him.

An article in The Athletic (subscription required) put forth the suggestion that teams want to see Flaherty put forth another excellent season before handing him a long-term contract. In 2024, while splitting time between the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Flaherty pitched to a 3.17 ERA and fanned 194 batters in 162 innings. However, he was only one year removed from a dreadful stint with the Baltimore Orioles, where he had an ERA of 6.75 and was eventually removed from the rotation.

A FanGraphs article penned by Michael Rosen offered another possible reason for Flaherty's chilly market. Rosen posits that teams are concerned about Flaherty's fastball, which has slightly dipped in velocity over the past season and lacks the movement and deceptiveness of those possessed by Fried, Snell and Corbin Burnes.

With the Cardinals entering a retool, there is unlikely to be any interest in a reunion with Flaherty, who may have burned any remaining bridges he had with fans after his comments in 2023. But although Flaherty had a turbulent relationship with Cardinals fans, it's difficult to justify a scenario where he doesn't deserve a decent payout for his performance last season. But he might have to settle for a short-term deal to show that he can remain healthy and effective for another season.