Flaherty has warm reunion with former Cards teammates 

BALTIMORE -- The hugs arrived in bunches for Jack Flaherty, once the right-hander emerged outside the visitors' dugout at Oriole Park, where so many players, coaches and friends clad in Cardinal red appeared as opponents for the first time.

First it was manager Oliver Marmol behind the batting cage, reaching up as he was swallowed by the 6-foot-4 Flaherty’s open arms. The biggest embrace was reserved for Adam Wainwright, a longtime mentor who Flaherty moments earlier called “a special guy.” In between, Flaherty bathed in warm reunions with players and staff from the organization that drafted, developed and eventually traded him to the Orioles on Aug. 1 amid a rare down season.

“It was a transition at first, but it’s been good,” Flaherty said before St. Louis dropped the series opener, 11-5, to the Orioles on Monday night. “A different experience, meeting different people, but then it just comes down to playing baseball, trying to win games.”

The Cardinals’ first-round pick in 2014, Flaherty debuted with St. Louis on Sept. 1, 2017, and he quickly grew into a rotation mainstay, earning National League Cy Young votes in 2019 and starting postseason games in ‘19 and ‘20. Flaherty battled injuries and inconsistency for parts of the next two seasons, but he rebounded well enough to post a 4.43 ERA in his first 20 starts of 2023.

That track record made Flaherty attractive to an Orioles team looking to beef up its rotation heading into the stretch run once St. Louis declared itself rare sellers at the Trade Deadline. Flaherty ultimately became the centerpiece of the four-player deal that sent left-hander Drew Rom -- who will start Wednesday against his former team -- and two prospects to the Cardinals for Flaherty.

“You’re excited for the [new] opportunity,” Flaherty said. “We just hadn’t played as we’d hoped up to that point. All you want to do is go to the playoffs, that’s what you play the game for. Sometimes things don’t work for whatever reason. But you get excited that you go to a team competing, and then you start thinking about all the guys that I basically grew up with. You get sad. Goodbyes are never easy. You know you’ll see them again, but it’s not the same.”

Back in St. Louis, Flaherty’s departure created another opportunity for Dakota Hudson, who was charged with seven runs in 4 1/3 innings Monday in what amounted to his worst outing since rejoining the rotation in Flaherty’s stead. The loss was St. Louis’ 81st of the season, guaranteeing the Cardinals their first non-winning season since 2007.

Asked about his reaction to the trade, Flaherty called it “a lot of mixed emotions.” On the mound, it hasn’t been the smoothest transition. Flaherty owns a 7.16 ERA in his first six starts with Baltimore; he won’t pitch in this Interleague series with St. Louis, the Cardinals’ first trip to Baltimore since 2017.

“It’s been a lot of, ‘Do what you do,’ and, ‘Pitch the way you know how to pitch, and things will go well,’” Flaherty said of the message he’s received in Baltimore. “So that’s a good feeling to have when things kind of haven’t worked out.”

Said Marmol: “We were able to catch up and talk about how things were going. He’s a guy I care a decent amount about, so it was good to catch up with him.”

Anticipating the reunion with Wainwright, who will make another attempt at career win No. 199 on Tuesday, Flaherty said he was looking forward to “giving him a big ol’ hug.” A short while later, Wainwright approached. Flaherty went low, his smile wide. Wainwright went high, and the hug that resulted went big and deep enough to inch the 42-year-old’s 230-pound frame momentarily off the ground.

“You remember the fun,” Flaherty said. “You remember the enjoyment of all the times you had and how much fun it was.”