Baltimore Orioles Swing Deadline Deal For St. Louis Cardinals Pitcher Jack Flaherty
The St. Louis Cardinals have traded starting pitcher Jack Flaherty to the Baltimore Orioles, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan. The move was reported mere minutes before the MLB trade deadline, which struck at 6 p.m. ET.
Infielder Cesar Prieto and left-hander Drew Rom – the Orioles' No. 16 and No. 18 prospects, respectively – are reportedly going back to St. Louis as part of the deal.
Flaherty was one of the top arms on the market this summer, although the 27-year-old is set to be a free agent at the end of the 2023 season.
Through 20 starts, Flaherty is 7-6 with a 4.43 ERA and 1.550 WHIP. The Cardinals were 13-7 when Flaherty took the mound this year, compared to 34-53 when he did not.
St. Louis was able to trade away three of its top pitchers before the deadline this year – Flaherty, starter Jordan Montgomery and reliever Jordan Hicks – in addition to shortstop Paul DeJong, punting on a 2023 season that is on pace to be their worst since 1995.
Flaherty had been a part of the Cardinals' system since 2014, and the former No. 2 prospect in baseball lived up to the hype the moment he reached the majors.
Between his first two seasons, Flaherty went 19-17 with a 3.01 ERA, 1.028 WHIP and 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings. After finishing fifth in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2018, Flaherty placed fourth in the NL Cy Young race and 13th in the NL MVP race in 2019.
Flaherty missed big chunks of the 2021 and 2022 seasons with shoulder and oblique injuries, as he only started 32 games between 2020 and 2022. His production has also fallen off since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Flaherty posting a 4.12 ERA and 1.361 WHIP over the last four years.
But at just 27 years old, though, Flaherty appears to have plenty left in the tank. Taking out his May 4 start against the Los Angeles Angels in which he allowed 10 earned runs, Flaherty's season ERA drops down to a much more palatable 3.69.
The Orioles parted ways with a pair of Triple-A prospects in order to add Flaherty, with both of them projected to hit the majors within the next year.
Prieto is hitting .305 with a .781 OPS through two seasons of minor league ball, while Rom is 32-15 with a 3.79 ERA and 1.333 WHIP dating back to 2018. The former is a 5-foot-9 utility infielder and the latter is a 6-foot-2 right-handed starter.
Baltimore was able to secure Flaherty without giving up any of its top 15 prospects though, which are even more valuable considering their farm system was ranked No. 1 in baseball entering 2023.
The Orioles are currently 65-41, which gives them a 1.5-game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the AL East.
Before trading for Flaherty, the other major move Baltimore made to bolster its pitching staff ahead of the deadline was when it swung a deal for Oakland Athletics reliever Shintaro Fujinami on July 19. The Rays, on the other hand, notably traded for Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Aaron Civale on Monday.
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