DETROIT — Carson Kelly caught Jack Flaherty when the two were coming up as prospects in the St. Louis Cardinals’ system. Kelly saw the stuff, the windup, the extension and the poise that would serve Flaherty well as he grew into a young, blistering frontline starter.
“He was very in control of what he wanted to do,” Kelly said. “Never saw the moment become too big.”
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Make no mistake: There were times Flaherty could let his frustration show. “He would get angry and you could tell that he would get angry. He still shows it today,” Kelly said. But there was a certain controlled aggression Kelly noticed in a young Flaherty, a trait he would learn to channel over the years. When Kelly caught Flaherty, they were young and green and still naive to many of the challenges in front of them. These were the simple days, everything still ahead.
In the coming years, they learned the realities of the game: success, failure, injuries and the whole spectrum.
But for both Flaherty and the catcher he has known for so long, the waves of this game were necessary to reach where they are today. Both players are having resurgent seasons with the Detroit Tigers, Kelly entering Thursday’s game worth 1.3 fWAR at catcher and Flaherty re-establishing himself as a dominant starter. Both players are now likely to be shopped at the July 30 trade deadline. Flaherty, assuming a lingering back issue is truly in the past, could be one of the most in-demand pitchers in the league.
And just like Kelly might not be here if not for the injuries and struggles that led to a total reexamination of his game, Flaherty might not be here without the calluses of two-plus seasons spent chasing his former self.
“I think there’s two challenges that come up with players,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “Trying to reclaim something you’ve already had versus not chasing something in the past and (instead) chasing where you need to go to get outs and be a better pitcher.”
Flaherty reckoned with that balance over the past several seasons. After finishing fourth in the National League Cy Young Award voting in 2019 at age 23, Flaherty posted a 4.25 ERA in 2022 and a 4.99 ERA in 2023. He was traded to the Baltimore Orioles at last year’s deadline and finished the season pitching out of the bullpen.
“You know it’s bound to happen,” Flaherty said. “You’re not always going to feel great. You’re not always going to throw as well as you’d like. You’d prefer those to be games and not seasons.”
The sharp decline led to a deep examination. Rather than trying to force the same methods that worked for him as a younger player, he and his advisers delved deep into studying ways he could both recapture elements of his past and how he could conquer new ground to become a formidable pitcher once again.
“I think that if you want to be great at something, you’ve got to be able to be a good self-evaluator,” Flaherty said, “and I think I’ve always been pretty capable of that. ‘OK, here’s what went on last year, this is how things went, how do we improve off of that and make sure that we won’t pitch that way again?’”
Carson Kelly batted .210 with a .601 OPS from 2022-23. (Junfu Han / USA Today)
The process was familiar for Kelly, who was traded from the Cardinals to the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of a package for Paul Goldschmidt in December 2018. After establishing himself as a No. 1 catcher in 2019, when he hit 18 home runs and had a 112 OPS+ at age 24, Kelly endured a series of brutal mishaps. He broke five bones in three years. A fastball last spring shattered his ulna. When he finally returned to the Diamondbacks last summer, his OPS+ was 60 through 84 at-bats. With Gabriel Moreno entrenched at catcher, the D-backs cut ties with Kelly.
But Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris viewed Kelly as someone the Tigers could help improve. Kelly talked with Hinch, who told him: “If you want to get better, this is the spot for you.”
Kelly came to the Tigers late last season. He switched to a one-knee setup behind the plate. He altered his bat path at the plate in hopes of producing more power. The changes needed time to take hold. But the Tigers were patient.
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“He’s just remained true to himself and who he is,” Flaherty said. “Whether or not that confidence has wavered at all, you don’t necessarily see it.”
In Flaherty’s case, Hinch traveled to Las Vegas to meet with the pitcher over the winter. The two compared notes. Some of the mechanical tweaks Flaherty had already identified happened to be things the Tigers’ staff was ready to sell as ways they believed they could help him improve.
“The fact they found the same things I found let me know that they had a pretty good idea of how to go about fixing these things,” Flaherty said this spring. He signed with the Tigers on a one-year, $14 million deal.
For Flaherty, much of the work was about his biomechanics, moving better down the slope and generating force from the ground. There were also tweaks to his arsenal — Flaherty scrapped his cutter and upped his fastball and slider usage.
“Early on in our relationship with Jack, he was an open book,” Hinch said. “Asked a lot of questions. Wanted a lot of feedback. Could be coached hard. And could be challenged.”
For as much as physical changes have made a difference for both players, the behind-the-scenes mental work has been transformative, too. Kelly has a diligent routine. It starts an hour and 40 minutes before the game, as much about prepping his mind as it is his body. He does meditation and visualization exercises. He focuses on breathing techniques. Postgame, more of the physical work takes hold. Sauna and then an ice bath. A drive home with chamomile tea. It’s a way to regulate his nervous system, calm his mind and rest up for the ensuing day.
“In this game, not everybody’s curve is perfect,” Kelly said. “Not everybody’s curve is success all the time. You’re going to get punched in the mouth at some point if you play this game long enough. Me and Jack have both had that. I think the beauty of that is you learn how to get through those low moments and to not stress so much if it is a low moment.”
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Both players are religious note-takers. For Flaherty, the notes serve as a way of remembering all the small cues that can get lost in the course of a season. As he has gotten older and gained experience, he has also honed his mental methodology in games. “He visualizes a lot,” Kelly said. “He sees himself on the mound, what he’s doing.”
In the past, Flaherty admits his mind would wander in the dugout between innings. Talks with mentors such as former Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter helped sharpen what’s turned into laser focus. He views practicing this mentality — focusing on the next pitch, even in catch play — just like training a physical skill.
“You’ve got to practice just the same way you would with games and the way you throw,” Flaherty said. “You’ve got to practice with the way you are mentally and the way that you go about things and the way that you bounce back from one day to the next.”
Kelly and Flaherty have now become two of the Tigers’ best storylines this season.
Thursday in a victory against the Cleveland Guardians, Kelly caught Flaherty and belted his seventh home run of the season. Since May 13, he ranks second among all MLB catchers with an .886 OPS.
For Flaherty, the turnaround this season has been nothing short of stellar. After skipping a start because of back tightness, Flaherty returned Thursday to throw six innings, allowing only one run. He lowered his season ERA to 3.13. His fastball and slider combination continue to be lethal and have helped him average 11.27 K/9.
“Same ol’ Jack,” Kelly said after the game.
He knows better than anyone what that looks like.
He understands better than most the work it took to get back here.
(Top photo of Jack Flaherty: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
Cody Stavenhagen is a staff writer covering the Detroit Tigers and Major League Baseball for The Athletic. Previously, he covered Michigan football at The Athletic and Oklahoma football and basketball for the Tulsa World, where he was named APSE Beat Writer of the Year for his circulation group in 2016. He is a native of Amarillo, Texas. Follow Cody on Twitter @CodyStavenhagen
