HOUSTON — He captured championships and Cy Young Awards while authoring a career renaissance few of his counterparts can comprehend, but Justin Verlander’s most indelible memory as a Houston Astro arrived amid an awful stretch of his storied career.
Verlander surrendered six earned runs and failed to finish the fifth inning during his final start in downtown Houston. Still, he exited the field to a standing ovation that “meant a lot” and, to this day, makes Verlander emotional. The crowd understood something the pitcher himself did not.
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“I didn’t even really realize it was my last start here or potentially my last start,” Verlander said on Monday.
If Verlander had his way this winter, it may not have been. Verlander and Astros owner Jim Crane had “mutual interest” in a reunion, according to Verlander, who acknowledged he “would always entertain the idea of coming back here.”
Instead, Verlander signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the San Francisco Giants. Upon his return to Houston on Monday, Verlander said he spoke with Crane “a lot” throughout the winter — including after the Giants began their serious pursuit.
“Jim is like, ‘We’re not even in a place to make an offer right now,’” Verlander said. “I appreciated the candidness. That was kind of that for me.”
Verlander’s contract with the Giants became official on Jan. 11 — after the Astros had made most of their consequential offseason moves. Throughout the winter, multiple team sources said the club operated as if it could not cross the luxury tax. Verlander’s salary would’ve put Houston over the threshold for the second consecutive season.
Asked last week whether he gave a mandate to remain under the luxury tax, Crane replied, “We don’t really stay focused on that. We really stay focused on winning and putting the best combination of players we can put on the field.”
“Once you get the ball rolling with negotiations, you just don’t know how things are going to play out,” Verlander said. “I’ve seen that play out before when I went to New York and then this time. I loved my time here and it’s something that’s really special to me. Of course, the opportunity to play here is always something that’s on my mind.”
Justin Verlander allowed two earned runs over five innings in his first start with the Giants. (Jeff Dean / Getty Images)
The nature of Verlander and Crane’s relationship always made any reunion in Houston feasible, even if the Astros did not have an acute need for starting pitching this winter.
Crane engineered two trades for Verlander — including one after allowing Verlander to sign with the Mets in 2023 — and gave the 42-year-old right-hander two contract extensions during an eight-year Astros career that cemented him as perhaps the best pitcher in franchise history.
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Verlander won two American League Cy Young Awards, finished runner-up for another, notched his 3,000th career strikeout and picked up the only World Series win of his career while wearing an Astros uniform. Houston made the American League Championship Series in all but one season Verlander pitched, winning two World Series titles.
Such success raises a logical question: Will Verlander become the first starting pitcher to enter the Hall of Fame wearing an Astros cap? Radio host Dan Patrick posed it to Verlander earlier this month and, on Monday, he confronted it again.
“Some really special things happened here,” Verlander said outside the third-base dugout at Daikin Park. “I’m not blowing smoke, this is just how I operate: I let things just kind of happen and just make decisions when I have all the information.”
The Baseball Hall of Fame does make the final decision on which caps appear on an inductee’s plaque, though it does so after consultation with the inductees and their families. Verlander’s only other choice is to represent the Detroit Tigers, the club that drafted him second overall in 2004 and witnessed his ascension into a generational great. Verlander won an MVP, Rookie of the Year and one Cy Young Award while posting a 3.49 ERA during his 13-year Tigers tenure.
“You just never know how things will play out,” Verlander said. “You don’t know how things will play out with me and Detroit in the future, so it’s not a decision I can really even think about that much right now. Quite honestly, I try not to.”
(Top photo of Justin Verlander from the 2024 Wild Card Series: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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