Right-hander Jack Flaherty has won his arbitration hearing with the Cardinals, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports (Twitter link). Flaherty will receive the $3.9MM salary he was seeking in 2021, as opposed to the $3MM offered by St. Louis.
It’s a very nice result for Flaherty in his first year of arbitration eligibility, and it lines him up for significantly higher escalating salaries over his next two arb years. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Flaherty for a salary in the range of $2.2MM to $3MM, and while the Cardinals were even on the higher end of that projection, the arbiter ruled in Flaherty’s favor.
Flaherty was excellent in his first two full big league seasons, finishing fifth in NL Rookie Of The Year voting in 2018 and then fourth in NL Cy Young voting in 2019. By that standard, 2020 was a down year since Flaherty posted a 4.91 ERA and 9.4BB%, but many of his underlying metrics were still strong — a 28.8 K%, a 3.89 SIERA, and an above-average job at limiting hard contact. Of course, 2020 was such an odd season that it’s hard to make any real conclusions about Flaherty’s performance, particularly given how the Cardinals had even more of a difficult time than most teams given their widespread COVID-19 outbreak and the heavy schedule full of make-up games down the stretch.
As noted by Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, this marks the Cardinals’ first defeat in an arbitration hearing since back in 1994 (against former All-Star Gregg Jefferies). “The current front office and ownership group had never lost an arbitration, and they once went more than 15 years without one,” Goold wrote.
Jack pot
Jack Flaherty*
Joke imitation is the greatest form of Flaherty!
Well done all three of you
I like how Jack Flaherty case is worded “against the Cardinals” and Mike Sorokas is listed “with the Braves” even the people writing these articles know that Jack will one day be pitching “against the Cardinals”
It’s always pretty crazy to realize that the .9 is, in fact, $900,000.
Yeah, he didn’t just win his arbitration case, he got almost 1 million more than the Cardinals were offering.
Flaherty is my Cy young pick for NL who is yours?
He better encourage his teammates to score more runs for him then. I know wins and losses doesn’t mean much, but it’s always striking to note that his career w/l record (for a pretty good team) is 23-22.
I think the league has figured him out anyway. In his two good years in 2018-19 his FIP and xFIP were well above his ERA, a talent he did not exhibit in the minors. I think he’s true-talent about a 3.5 ERA guy, a 3 to 4 win pitcher if he makes all 32 starts. That’s pretty good, but it’s not CY material in a league with guys like deGrom, Bauer, Buehler, Snell, Darvish, Soroka, and others.
Felix won one at 13-12
deGrom just said hold my beer.
I want to hear what Rangers29 or 26 or whatever thinks first.
Walker Buehler but would be 0% surprised if Jack won, he is awesome.
he’ll win at least one in his career
Yes
Good for him, he deserves to be paid
Even at $3MM, he was gonna get paid. And more than most.
I’m happy for the guy he led the rotation for two years not making much now at least he has some money more in line with a skill that’s rare for people to have. Unless our offense turns it around we’ll need him
It appears Flaherty didn’t take what the Cardinals presented too well
He won’t be a Cardinal long-term. Too much animosity.
As long as he pitches well the cardinals will keep him…the cardinals are kinda all in with the Arenado trade…don’t get me wrong jacks final season with the cardinals they might trade him. Flaherty is all about getting top dollar and isn’t interested in a team discount extension but I think if he pitches well the cardinals can’t get rid of him…plus he isn’t doing himself any favors with his social media
He never has.
Is that something specific you read somewhere? Would be interested to know more… but couldn’t find anything recent/post-hearing about it.
His Twitter posted a Jordan meme saying “….and I took that personally”
Arbitration hearings can be pretty rough. Not surprised if the Cardinals aired a lot of dirty laundry just to try to save that $900,000 this year.
K
Looks like the arb committee more or less ignored the 2020 season, at least in this case.
Oh boy, here we go with the arbitration articles..
Is there a good reason for not having arbitration articles?
Technically they aren’t rumors. So I suppose that could be a reason for not doing them on this site.
But I disagree with @DockEllisDee wholeheartedly. Especially in this case, I think everyone is going to start talking (if they haven’t already) about Jack forcing his way out of St. Louis because of all the internal disputes.
Plus I prefer more baseball content than less, so keep it coming.
News of a team signing a player isn’t a rumor either so let’s stop those as well. Let’s take the name so literally that it’s only rumors with no follow up.
Neither are confirmed trades and free agent signings, yet the site obviously won’t get rid of those articles.
I was only answering a question with one possible justification, then stated I disagreed with that reason. Let’s all calm down and enjoy some baseball while the stove is still hot.
Cue Don Lucchesi.
Flaherty’s mom cheered her son’s arbitration victory while wearing her Dodger cap, one might imagine.
He’s all about being Comraded out till it’s time to cash the check!
Typical…
He is a really good young arm. Flaherty is a stud! I also believe he is the most valuable player on the team. He is the guy they can least afford to lose if they are to be successful this year. I still got the Cards finishing behind Milwaukee in the NL Central, baseball’s worst division.
Lock him up, long term. They can win if the outfield can hit.
Cards beat the brewers last year and had a much better off season.
Id be interested in hearing you logic. Sincerely. Also I would say goldy or arenado would be a bigger loss as they play every day and hold down the middle of an otherwise light lineup. on both sides of the ball.
The name on the front of the jersey is more important than the one on the back. Flaherty does not fit the Cardinal mode. They’ll trade him before he reaches free agency.
The DeWitt era Cardinals don’t do that kind of thing with star players as long as they remain competitive (and there’s no reason to think they won’t remain so over the next few years), unless they get similarly valuable MLB players in return. Even if Flaherty doesn’t stay long term, he’ll be leaving via free agency in 3 years while the Cardinals most likely collect a draft pick after he declines their qualifying offer.
A bit surprising.