Will Tigers' Jack Flaherty get his ring tonight against Dodgers?

LOS ANGELES – You couldn’t make this up.

It would be too implausible. Too unbelievable. Even by Hollywood standards.

But let me offer a synopsis of the script.

Jack Flaherty will pitch for the Detroit Tigers against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.

And that brings us to the first twist: Flaherty will take the mound on the night the Dodgers will receive their World Series rings.

Which is so wonderfully, strangely perfect.

Because Flaherty helped the Dodgers win that ring. He pitched in 10 games for the Dodgers in 2024, winning six of them; and he pitched five postseason games, including starting Game 1 of the World Series, throwing 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs and recording six strikeouts.

So, will Flaherty walk out with the Dodgers – in his Tigers uniform – and get his ring and pose with his old teammates? And then try to beat them?

No one has revealed exactly how this will play out, but I seriously doubt he would do anything to change his pregame routine.

“That's the least of my thoughts and concerns,” Flaherty said Thursday. “I'm more focused on getting the job done (Friday).”

Flaherty is one of the most intense pitchers I’ve ever met. And there is no way he would do anything to get sidetracked by a ceremony.

“They aren’t going to bother him on his start day,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said Thursday afternoon. “I can’t imagine they would. No one has said anything to me about it.

"I assume he will have his own mini ceremony, either after the game or on Saturday.”

So, is this awkward for him?

“Not awkward, that's for sure,” Flaherty said. “Just more interesting in terms of just the run of emotions and knowing everything that occurred here last year. … So, it's just a bunch of different things.”

Different things indeed. You just chalk this up to a strange coincidence. Guys leave teams and join new ones all the time. The timing has just lined up perfectly to set up this strange night.

But wait, there’s more.

Every great story needs a full, complete back story. And this one is dripping with wonderful twists and turns.

Did I mention Flaherty is a California kid?

No, even better than that.

Did I mention how he grew up in Dodger Stadium?

Seriously.

“I used to take him to Dodger Stadium when he was six months old,” Eileen Flaherty, who adopted Jack when he was three weeks old and raised him as a single parent, told me in 2024.

I never used that quote until now.

Because it just seems so perfect to point out.

“I had a friend of mine who had season tickets,” Eileen Flaherty said. “So, he would go to like 20 baseball games a year and Jack would just sit on my lap with me. For the first three or four years of his life.”

Oh, that’s just the start.

Jack played in Dodger Stadium when he was in high school. “He pitched there and won a championship,” Eileen said.

Yes, this is all so full circle.

"This is where I grew up and fell in love with the game, and then I got to live out a childhood dream last year in the second half and through the World Series,” Flaherty said. “It holds a special place with me.”

Most Tigers fans know the other twist in this story.

How Flaherty started the 2024 season in Detroit.

How they traded him to the Dodgers for catcher Thayron Liranzo and infielder Trey Sweeney.

A trade that seems better by the day for the Tigers.

Liranzo is the Tigers' No. 5 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. And Sweeney played a critical role for the Tigers in 2024, helping them get to the playoffs.

As Hinch has said several times: Flaherty is the gift that keeps on giving.

Even on a day when the Dodgers are the ones who are doing the giving − handing out rings.

So, now, this California kid is back in Los Angeles, pitching in the place where he grew up, where he fell in love with baseball.

Sharing a clubhouse with one of the guys the Tigers got in trade for him.

On a night the Dodgers will celebrate something he helped win.

And on that night, he will try to beat the heck out of his childhood team.

Like I said, you can’t make this up.

It should make for a wild night in Los Angeles.

Contact Jeff Seidel: [email protected]. Follow him on X @seideljeff.