Jack Flaherty's struggles have taken him from free agent steal to Tigers liability

Jack Flaherty's last start against the Rangers was downright awful. On Saturday, in front of a sold out crowd lined up for hours ahead of first pitch for Tarik Skubal bobblehead day, Flaherty looked to follow his teammate's monumental effort on Friday (Skubal took a perfect game into the sixth). Well, perhaps not with an outing that dominant, but at least one that would get the Tigers another series win at home.

But Flaherty immediately gave up a leadoff homer to Josh Smith, and then another to Corey Seager to put the Rangers up by two immediately. Kerry Carpenter cut the lead in half when it was the Tigers' turn, but Flaherty was doing his offense zero favors. He gave up another homer to Evan Carter, and then a two-run shot to Joc Pederson — Joc Pederson, who started the year 0-for-41 and hadn't hit a home run before that very moment — before AJ Hinch pulled him.

The Rangers were seeing Flaherty's fastball; he induced zero whiffs on eight swings and his whiff rate has dropped from 23.9% to 11% this season. He leads the Tigers pitching staff in home runs allowed (9), and sports the highest ERA in the rotation at 4.61.

Jack Flaherty looks like he's lost all of his magic after Rangers' home run fest against Tigers

If Flaherty was going to turn back into a pumpkin, it would've been more understandable last year, when the Tigers signed him to his initial one-year, prove-it deal after a messy 2023 with the Cardinals and Orioles. But the Tigers looked like they'd fixed him before they sent him on his way to the Dodgers, and he still seemed solid when he returned this year after a prolonged free agency.

Flaherty was a huge win for a front office who said they didn't intend to add pitching talent after signing Alex Cobb, and his contract was respectable — $25 million for 2025 with a $10 million player option for 2026.

With how good Flaherty looked in his first few starts of this season, it seemed like he could walk away from the Tigers at the end of the year and earn more in free agency again, but if this dip turns into another total decline, the Tigers might be stuck with another nightmare contract in 2026.

There's still a lot of season to go, and Flaherty was doing well enough so recently that it's impossible to write him off entirely quite yet. We just can't have anymore starts like Saturday's against the Rangers. And the Tigers can't afford another stretch from the right-hander like we just saw over his last three outings. One thing to note, though? The offense does need to help him out. The Tigers are 1-7 in his starts despite four showings of two earned runs or fewer.