Detroit Tigers May Have Just Assembled Best Rotation in All of Baseball

The Detroit Tigers made a seismic move on Sunday evening which many expected for a long time when they brought in the top available free agent pitcher.

A 2-year, $35 million contract for Jack Flaherty with a player option for 2026 makes for a reunion with the Tigers, who of course sent him away at the trade deadline to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for a top-100 prospect in Thayron Liranzo along with a potential option at shortstop in Trey Sweeney.

It's not often a team is able to pull off a one-year deal, send the player away at the deadline in exchange for a legitimate package, then proceed to bring him back the next offseason, but that's exactly the savvy move Scott Harris and Detroit made.

It's a move that even though it was predicted by many, for large parts of the offseason in didn't feel all that realistic. For one, Tigers management effectively said they were done adding starting pitching after committing a significant chunk of change to Alex Cobb, but they also likely didn't expect Flaherty to be available for this long.

At the outset, the righty sounded to be looking for a five-year deal, but the longer things went on the more apparent it was that he may be willing to accept a high AAV shorter term deal, which is exactly where Detroit swept in.

Clearly they sold Flaherty on the fact he played the best baseball of his career under Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter and the idea of teaming up with Tarik Skubal once again and potentially contending for a title in Detroit.

Just how good can the Tigers rotation now be?

The long and short of it is that if everything goes according to plan, it could be one of the best in all of baseball.

Skubal is the best pitcher on the planet and shows no signs of slowing down, so barring some sort of injury situation, the top of the unit is going to be elite once again. But the value of having a No. 2 like Flaherty cannot be understated either.

In 18 starts with Detroit, Flaherty posted a 2.95 ERA with a 0.956 WHIP and 133 strikeouts in just 106.2 innings pitched. The combination of Skubal and the version of himself Flaherty was with the Tigers last year is arguably the best duo in baseball.

Beyond that, Reese Olson looks poised to take the next step heading into his third MLB season and could be the difference in what the ceiling for the staff as a whole becomes. If Olson takes that next step coming off two rather promising seasons, it's not just an dynamic duo, but a fearsome trio.

Cobb will be penciled in at the No. 4 spot to begin the year which is a nice place to be for the oft-injured veteran. If Detroit can get 20-25 quality starts from him they will be thrilled.

Then comes the X-factor of the entire pitching staff. In all likelihood, top prospect Jackson Jobe is going to begin the season at the MLB level, and what he does with the opportunity is entirely up to him.

Expecting him to burst onto the scenes immediately isn't fair, but if Jobe can start to take steps as a rookie and even begin to look like the kind of prospect he's billed as all while being a No. 5 starter, the Tigers rotation has a chance to be better than just great, it will be the best in baseball.

There's numerous factors still at play here such as health, potential to reach, and sustained performance, but there's no questioning it.

This Detroit starting rotation has the makings - at least on paper - of a unit that has some truly special potential.

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