Why Dodgers are concerned about Jack Flaherty ahead of World Series start

The Dodgers head into Game 1 of the World Series with a question mark.

Jack Flaherty is starting the opener Friday night, despite getting lit up in his last start in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series when he experienced a noticeable drop in velocity.

That drop has the team’s pitching coach, Mark Prior, “moderately concerned,” according to ESPN.

Flaherty got torched for eight runs in just three innings against the Mets and had an average fastball velocity of 91.4 MPH.

Flaherty talks to reporters about his Game 1 start. AP

This is down significantly from his season average of 93.3 MPH.

The eight runs he allowed are the most he coughed up in any game this season.

The Dodgers, for now, are chopping it up to less rest in the postseason, but their pitching coach is still concerned about the development.

“Obviously, everybody knows — the more velocity, the better, usually – unless you’re going way below hitting speed,” Prior told reporters at World Series media day Thursday. “Concern, yeah, because obviously he was pitching on regular rest and it was a little bit down.

Jack Flaherty saw his velocity decrease in the NLCS. Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

“Can he pitch with it? Yeah. He’s somebody who’s more about execution that anything. And I think they did a really good job of game planning the second time through, sitting on some of their slower spin stuff. But I think with extra rest and what we saw in bullpens, I feel pretty confident that he can get back to where he was the other time.”

Flaherty, though, did throw seven shutout innings to open the NLCS and will have six days rest heading into this start.

Flaherty, whom the Dodgers acquired at the trade deadline and someone the Yankees had significant interest in before refusing to sign off on his medical history due to a back concern, is now a major subplot of the World Series.

Los Angeles has had a significant string of bad injury luck, seeing most of their starting rotation already go down with injury.

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Clayton Kershaw and Tyler Glasnow are former Cy Young winners that were expected to be major contributors in 2024 but have been out due to injury for most of the season and won’t pitch in the World Series.

Los Angeles has other pitchers on the injured list, including Tony Gonsolin, Emmett Sheehan, Gavin Stone, and Dustin May, all of whom would be major pieces to their World Series puzzle.

Shohei Ohtani is a part of their pitching future, but will not be on the mound in this World Series.

Jack Flaherty will have the biggest start of his career in Game 1. Getty Images

Instead, the Dodgers are tasked with making do with just Flaherty, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and an expected bullpen game.