"Get Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler" - MLB sportscaster urges Padres, Angels 'make a statement' by acquiring ex-Dodgers free agents

Starting pitchers Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler have not been offered a contract extension by the Los Angeles Dodgers as yet. Their return to the Dodgers looks unlikely after Blake Snell agreed to a five-year, $182 million deal earlier this week. The reigning World Series champions strengthened an already strong starting rotation. Therefore, Flaherty and Buehler are now surplus to their needs.

Veteran sportscaster Lee Hacksaw Hamilton feels this presents the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Angels with a nice opportunity to strengthen their pitching staff. He urged the two teams to make a statement in this off-season market by signing Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler, both of whom played a key role in helping the Dodgers win the World Series this year.

Lee Hacksaw Hamilton is a veteran sportscaster based in San Diego and is a host for MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. He made the statement during the latest episode of his own talk show on Youtube this Friday.

"If I'm the Padres, the fact that Snell is up there now, [I'll] call Jack Flaherty, call Walker Buehler," he said. "Get one of those guys into San Diego.

"If I'm the Angels, yeah, you have signed six guys in the off-season," he continued. "The Angels are the only pitching staff I know of [with] a five-man rotation of No. 4 starters. It's all they have. They have no ace. Go get Flaherty and go get Buehler. Make a statement that would surely change everything as it relates to the Angels."

Although the Dodgers possessed a long list of top-notch starting pitchers, Jack Flaherty, Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto were the only available ones during the postseason.

"This is an expensive insurance policy": Lee Hacksaw Hamilton on the Dodgers signing Blake Snell

Blake Snell will play for his third team in National League West next year (Photo Credit: Imagn)

The Los Angeles Dodgers caused a major surprise by adding two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to their starting rotation for 2025. Lee Hacksaw Hamilton feels this was an expensive insurance policy from the front office, but their pitching staff still remains quite injury-prone.

"Did they get an ace? Yeah, they did. Did they get an insurance policy? Yeah, I think they did [that], too," he said. "This is an expensive insurance policy. $36 million per year over the next five seasons. They're getting an ace, yes. 76-58 [record], career ERA of 3.19, two Cy Youngs, no-hitter, All-Star. But they're also getting a guy with four straight bad first halves of the season.

"They've really got a front-of-the-rotation guy. I think it's a great acquisition," he added. "I think they got an ace, but they also got an insurance policy. But the Dodgers right now still have a history of a lot of guys with injuries in that pitching staff."

They also signed Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto ahead of the 2023-24 season while Shohei Ohtani is also expected to return to the mound next year.