Jack Flaherty's injury concerns shouldn't worry Dodgers for obvious reason

Right when we were on the verge of panic that the Dodgers would walk away from the trade deadline without the thing they needed the most — a starting pitcher — the front office pulled through with a trade for Jack Flaherty in the last five minutes before the 3 PM PST hard stop.

The Tigers let him go for just two prospects: Trey Sweeney, who they acquired from the Yankees earlier this season in exchange for Victor González and Jorbit Vivas last (calendar) year, and Thayron Liranzo, who represented LA in the All-Star Futures Game this season. Both were good names (Liranzo immediately moved over to the Tigers' pipeline at No. 5), but the return paled in comparison to what the Blue Jays got for Yusei Kikuchi and what the Marlins got for Tanner Scott.

However, a potential wrinkle in the narrative popped up soon after the deal was done. Ken Rosenthal reported that the Yankees pulled out of their chase for Flaherty because of injury concerns, specifically two injections he received to treat lower back soreness earlier this season (subscription required). Yankees GM Brian Cashman was mum on Wednesday when asked about the specifics.

That might be a fine enough excuse for losing out on the market's top pitching rental — if we didn't already know about that for months.

Yankees cited "medical concerns" after exiting Jack Flaherty race, but Dodgers fans shouldn't be worried

Flaherty started dealing with recurring back tightness in early June, when he was removed from a start because of it. However, while he did miss a couple of starts in June and July and did indeed receive two injections, he also avoided the IL and didn't seem to have any issues through three starts this month, during which he's carrying a 1.53 ERA.

This all seems like a limp attempt for the Yankees to try to placate their fans and whatever the baseball equivalent of gaslighting is: they did try to get Flaherty, but it was his fault that it didn't happen!

Meanwhile, the Dodgers have little to no reason to believe Flaherty won't be able get through the rest of the season. Although LA's options were thinning out by the time we got down the wire — Kikuchi went to the Astros, Garrett Crochet and Tarik Skubal weren't being moved — it's hard to believe that they would full-send on a trade for a player they were concerned about when the rotation is already bogged down by injury. Just say that you lost and go, Yankees.