Sad News: Contract terminated

For the second straight season, the Dodgers will open their schedule with a pair of games in Asia. But in 2025 once they return stateside, their home opener against the Tigers will be televised exclusively by ESPN.

The Dodgers will host the Tigers on Thursday, March 27 in the first game of a three-game weekend series. The opener will start at 4 p.m. PT, part of an ESPN doubleheader in what will be opening day for 28 MLB teams.

The Yankees will host the Brewers in the first game on ESPN that day with a noon PT start, with an episode of ‘Baseball Tonight’ in between the two games.

The Dodgers have not announced whether they will have their championship ring ceremony before this home opener, but if they do, presumably SportsNet LA will televise the pregame ceremony. Generally, SportsNet LA does not do pregame or postgame shows for regular season games that aren’t televised by their network.

The San Francisco Giants have dealt with a lot from the Los Angeles Dodgers over the past year. They watched their National League West rival sign Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto before winning their second World Series in five seasons. Could president of baseball operations Buster Posey stick it to them by poaching starting pitcher Jack Flaherty via free agency?

Flaherty struggled to a 4.99 ERA in 144 1/3 innings in 2023 while splitting his time between the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles. He once again played for two teams in 2024 – the Detroit Tigers and Dodgers – but had much better results. The right-hander went 13-7 with a 3.17 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 194 strikeouts in 162 innings.

He signed a one-year, $14 million deal with Detroit last winter with hopes of rebuilding his value. Flaherty was successful in doing that and is now looking to cash in.

There have been several teams connected to the 29-year-old, including the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels and San Diego Padres. While Deadspin’s Derek Brown is predicting Flaherty will stay in California on a multi-year deal, he sees the hurler signing a four-year, $100 million guarantee with the Giants.

This would be an affordable way for San Francisco to fill the void left by Blake Snell opting out and re-entering free agency this winter. Pairing Flaherty with Logan Webb at the top of manager Bob Melvin’s rotation would strengthen San Francisco while simultaneously weakening the Dodgers.

Can the Giants pull it off, though? Flaherty is from the Los Angeles area and was drafted out of Harvard-Westlake High School in 2014. He also declared his love for L.A. during the club’s championship parade. “This is unbelievable. I love this city. I never want to leave. I never want to leave,” he said.