Not a big surprise here. Right-hander Jack Flaherty has exercised his player option with the Tigers and will return for $20 million in 2026.
The Tigers initially signed him to a two-year, $35 million deal last offseason, with the second year being a player option with an incentive attached if Flaherty spent most of the year in the rotation and off the injured list. Flaherty made $25 million in 2025, and because he did his part and easily cleared 15 starts this season, starting 31 games in the regular season, the option cost to the Tigers in 2026 jumped to $20 million, making it pretty likely he would opt back in.
Flaherty was initially signed to a one-year deal back in the 2023-2024 offseason. The Tigers had him ditch him cutter and made some adjustments with his lead leg blocking along with a other minor mechanical tweaks. The results were outstanding, as Flaherty produced the best season of his career since 2019. His 3.17 ERA/3.48 FIP ranked him 13th and 17th best in all the major leagues among qualified starters. The Tigers dealt the right-hander to the Los Angeles Dodgers for catching prospect Thayron Liranzo and shortstop prospect Trey Sweeney at the 2024 deadline, and Flaherty went on to win a World Series ring.
However, teams weren’t particularly convinced that the right-hander had really turned over a new leaf on his career at age 28. The offers in free agency weren’t aggressive, and Flaherty eventually decided to agree to a pretty team friendly deal with the Tigers.
Teams were right not to give him the sizable, multi-year deal he sought. Flaherty’s walk rate ticked back up and while he still gave the Tigers 161 innings, illustrating that the arm and shoulder trouble he dealt with from 2020-2023 were in the past, his ERA skyrocketed up to 4.64 this season.
His strikeout rate remains excellent and he had no more trouble with home runs than he did in 2024. He did walk 8.7 percent of hitters compared to 5.9 percent in 2024, but the jump in runs was more about sequencing and a couple of truly abysmal starts where he gave up a ton of runs and couldn’t right the ship mid-start, getting himself the early hook from A.J. Hinch. These things swing year to year regardless of underlying performance. Flaherty still posted a 3.85 FIP, and projections will expect him to put up a 2026 ERA closer to that mark than to his 4.64 ERA from this year.
Standard prices for veteran depth starters have ticked up to between $15-20 million for a season. Most of those guys don’t have the swing and miss stuff that Flaherty possesses, so while this isn’t a bargain, the Tigers were going to need to add starting pitching either way, so Flaherty returning is perfectly fine although they may have preferred to go in a different direction.
For Flaherty, having just turned 30 a few weeks ago, there’s still time to hunt for a long-term deal. He’ll look to be more consistent in 2026, hoping to prove to teams that he can be a consistent second or third starter in a good rotation for years to come. Having pending free agents in that situation on your roster is never a thing. He’ll be plenty motivated to return to his 2024 production this offseason.
So, Tarik Skubal, Jack Flaherty, and Casey Mize will again form the base of the Tigers’ rotation in 2026 unless there’s a big trade coming. With Reese Olson, Troy Melton, Keider Montero, Jose Urquidy, and possibly Sawyer Gipson-Long among their options to fill out the rotation, we’ll see if the Tigers target a short-term major league deal to another starting pitcher with an eye toward using other starters in the bullpen, or focus directly on building up the bullpen and adding to the position player group.
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