Think about this ride Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty has been on.

His 2024 season ended pitching for the Dodgers in the World Series, hoisting the championship trophy and enjoying the victory parade in front of an estimated two million fans in downtown Los Angeles.

His 2025 season began back in Los Angeles, pitching for the Tigers on the night his former teammates got their World Series rings.

And his second start of the season will be today in the Tigers’ home opener at Comerica Park.

Adrenaline won’t be an issue.

“I told him his third start was going to be a normal start,” manager AJ Hinch said with a wry smile. “He gets no show, no celebration, just an ordinary game.”

Except it will be against the slugging New York Yankees next week. Nothing ordinary about that.

“It’s been a unique start and an emotional one for him because of what the last 12 months have been like,” Hinch said. “I know he’ll be excited. I know our fans are excited to get us home and obviously he’s already dialed in to what his game plan is going to be.”

Flaherty might have finished last season with his hometown Dodgers, but he didn’t forget the warmth and acceptance he felt last season from Tigers fans.

“It was incredible,” he said. “Especially as the year went on and the way things went. I continued to be taken in by everybody. Even when we weren’t playing so well, it felt like I was received really well. I am looking forward to being back there.”

Against the Dodgers last Friday, Flaherty pitched five scoreless innings before his buddy Freddie Freeman dampened his night, whacking a first-pitch slider 411 feet for a game-tying two-run homer.

Still, it was in many ways a vintage Flaherty performance. He pitched effectively off his 93-94 mph fastball, commanding it to all sectors of the strike zone and deftly setting up situations to use his slider and knuckle-curveball.

Flaherty’s slider and knuckle-curve are considered elite pitches. But, as has been proven in his two down seasons in 2022 and 2023 and again at the end of last season, his four-seamer, a pitch that doesn’t pop off the page metrically, is the key to his success.

“I really don’t know what it is about that pitch that makes it effective,” Flaherty said.

It’s not overpowering, averaging between 93 and 94 mph throughout his career. He doesn’t have a ton of extension — 6-foot-8 when he was younger, and 6-6 now. The spin rate on it is right at league average, 2,200 rpm.

And yet, it’s a pitch he can use and must use in any count, any situation. It’s a pitch that he can both blow by and lock up hitters.

“It might be the conviction behind it,” Flaherty said. “You throw any pitch with conviction and you have a lot of faith behind it; the way you attack with it can do a lot for a pitch.

“I believe in it.”

But, as he said, conviction can only take a pitch so far.

“Freddie hit a slider I’ve wholeheartedly believed in for the entirety of my career,” he shrugged.

An underappreciated part of Flaherty’s makeup is his old-school competitiveness, which he learned from his master in St. Louis, Adam Wainwright. He doesn’t rely solely on the scouting reports and game plans; he reads hitters intuitively.

“Yeah, feel for when to go inside, when to go away, when to elevate and keep guys guessing which quadrant it’s going to come in,” Flaherty said. “That is huge.”

Hinch agrees. Flaherty’s mound IQ trumps the metrics on his pitches.

“For him, fastball location matters, conviction matters,” he said. “The metrics are what they are. But bad metrics doesn’t mean bad pitch. It just describes what the pitch is. How he uses it is really the key for him. Throw bad location with good metrics, it’s still going to get hit.

“It’s important to have a good feel and the old-school side of him knows when he feels the ball coming off his fingertips and he feels he’s behind it, there’s more finish in it.”

When Flaherty’s fastball is at it’s best, the induced vertical break (ride) is over 15 inches. That was the case in 2021 when he had a plus-7 run value on his heater and limited hitters to a .193 average and .379 slugging percentage.

For a variety of reasons, his fastball metrics fell below those thresholds in 2022 (13.9 inches of vertical break) and 2023 (13.5 inches) and his run values plummeted (minus- 8 and minus-3, respectively).

The Tigers’ pitching department, after he signed with the Tigers before the 2024 season, helped him revitalize his mechanics and got him moving quicker down the mound which helped his arm speed get back to normal.

The result was his vertical break got back up to 15.4 inches and his fastball run value was back up to plus-6.

“If my body is moving, I feel like my arm is going to take care of itself,” Flaherty said. “If I can get everything moving in the right direction, things usually take care of themselves. Things get out of whack when I start getting rotational and I don’t get downhill and I don’t stay behind the ball and I don’t get through it.”

He threw the fastball 49% of the time against the Dodgers, even though it’s not necessarily his “out” pitch. But it is the pitch that unlocks the rest of his arsenal. The command of his fastball helped set up favorable counts, which helped him get four misses on nine swings at his knuckle-curve and three misses on seven swings with his slider from a team that doesn’t swing and miss often.

“He pitches with conviction and he has a unique delivery to himself but it’s about being able to repeat those mechanics with any pitch he has,” Hinch said. “He has four pitches and he can use them. He doesn’t have to rely on one or the other.”

Flaherty didn’t get his ring with the rest of the Dodgers last Friday. He had his own mini-ceremony on Saturday, complete with a video tribute. His former teammates came out of the dugout to share the moment with him at home plate.

“What they did was incredible and I appreciate it,” Flaherty said. “All those guys coming out. Even a couple who didn’t come out, they reached out to me and congratulated me. It was good to see everybody.

“All in all, it was a really cool moment to have. That place will always hold a special place in my heart. To get my ring that way was nothing short of special.”

Flaherty kept his emotions in check Friday and Saturday. But on Sunday he stayed in Los Angeles and spent the off day with his mother and brother. And that’s where it all spilled out.

“That was pretty cool,” he said. “I was able to take it all in with them, away from everybody, just with family. Just thinking about everything that’s gone on and the place we’ve gotten to. Just cool to be able to share that with them.”

And now it’s back to business.