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DETROIT -- The Detroit Tigers got an early-offseason surprise on Tuesday: veteran right-hander Jack Flaherty has exercised his player option and will return to the club at a $20 million salary for the 2026 season. Flaherty, 30, was coming off an inconsistent 2025 campaign but was generally projected to earn more in free agency had he tested the market. Instead, he’ll return to Detroit for a third season. “I love these guys,” Flaherty said after the Tigers were eliminated from the playoffs last month. “I came back here for a reason. I may not have pitched as well as I would’ve hoped during the regular season, but we got ourselves in a good position, got into the playoffs. Didn’t matter how. Faced some big games with these guys, gave everything I had. You love each and every guy in here, and again, the camaraderie and the fight that they have for each other, it always means something.” Flaherty originally signed a one-year, $14 million deal with the Tigers before the 2024 season. He posted a 2.95 ERA in 106 2/3 innings with 133 strikeouts and 19 walks before being traded and winning a World Series with his hometown Los Angeles Dodgers. But he didn’t receive the long-term deal he had hoped for in free agency and returned to the Tigers in February on a one-year, $25 million deal with a player option that was ultimately worth $20 million. Flaherty finished with a 4.64 ERA in 161 innings in 2025, but a closer look reveals some nuance. His 3.85 FIP (nearly a run lower than his ERA) suggests some bad luck. His strikeout rate of 27.6 percent was down only slightly from last year, and his walk rate of 8.7 percent was modestly higher. Among starting pitchers with at least 150 innings, Flaherty’s K rate was 11th-best in all of baseball. His DRA- by Baseball Prospectus -- which measures deserved runs allowed rather than actual outcomes -- came in at 100, exactly league average. Although health concerns have nagged Flaherty throughout his career -- and likely contributed to his chilly market last winter -- he has now thrown 501 innings (including the postseason) over the past three seasons. The Tigers could still add one more starting pitcher to their current group, but their projected 2026 rotation is already in solid shape with ace Tarik Skubal, Flaherty, Casey Mize, Reese Olson and Troy Melton.
