Jack Flaherty sends Tigers a clear message in bounce-back performance

The Jack Flaherty who walked off the mound after six scoreless innings last Tuesday looked a lot more like the Jack Flaherty Tigers fans were hoping to see this year. He gave up just two hits and one walk to the visiting Giants while the Tigers' lineup gave him some support in the form of a Wenceel Pérez homer in his first at-bat back as well as a two-RBI day for Riley Greene.

Four of Flaherty's eight strikeouts came on the fastball, while the other four came on his devastating knuckle curve. The curveball has continued to be reliable this season, yielding a .145 batting average against and .210 slugging against, but the fastball has been a huge concern over his last few starts.

From April 28 to May 10, he put up three consecutive starts giving up four or more runs. He was absolutely hammered by the Rangers on May 10 and gave up four homers (three on the fastball), which generated zero whiffs on eight swings. At that point, the pitch's whiff rate had dropped to 11% (from 23.9% in 2024).

Dipping velocity was also a concern, and still doesn't have the same bite (it sat around 93-94 MPH while touching 95), but he's figuring out how to get guys to swing and miss again.

Jack Flaherty fans four batters with the fastball he's struggled with this season in latest Tigers start

Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press reported that the Tigers noticed changes in Flaherty's delivery after he was traded to the Dodgers last year, which resulted in more walks and fewer strikeouts. (Leave it to the Dodgers to run a perfectly good pitcher into the ground). The Tigers worked with Flaherty to make mechanical tweaks after they signed him the first time, but he struggled to remain consistent with those changes.

That would explain how erratic his season has been so far. He came out of the gate well and had a sub-3.00 ERA by the end of his fifth start, but then that three-game stretch of very bad pitching began. Although he's still struggling a bit with giving up homers, his ERA has only been dropping since then.

With Reese Olson on the IL, Flaherty needs to step back up and prove he's the best No. 2 for the Tigers rotation. His Tuesday start was a step in the right direction, and hopefully fans see more of it Monday night.