The Astros will reinstate Justin Verlander from the injured list prior to Friday’s game against the Nationals, manager Joe Espada announced to the Astros beat this morning (X link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic). Verlander will start Friday’s game in what’ll be his season debut. The three-time Cy Young winner opened the season on the 15-day injured list after he was slowed by shoulder fatigue early in spring training.
Verlander’s return is a boon for an Astros rotation that has been hammered by injuries, even beyond the expected absence of Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia Jr., both of whom are still on the mend from surgeries that ended their 2023 seasons. Houston saw Verlander slowed by shoulder troubles early in spring, lost Jose Urquidy to a forearm strain and recently placed Framber Valdez on the 15-day IL with elbow inflammation.
The Astros have already cycled through multiple depth starters, including rookies Blair Henley and Spencer Arrighetti. Even with an unexpectedly dominant start to the year for Ronel Blanco — previously the team’s sixth starter but now a vital member of the staff who’s already thrown a no-hitter in 2024 — Houston starters have the fifth-worst ERA in Major League Baseball at 5.13. The quartet of Henley, Arrighetti, J.P. France and Hunter Brown have combined to yield a staggering 44 runs in just 36 1/3 innings of work.
At 41 years old, it’s fair to wonder how long Verlander has left as a high-end starter. But he looked the part in 2023 when he tossed 162 innings of 3.22 ERA ball, fanned 21.5% of his opponents against a 6.7% walk rate, and maintained a solid 94.4 mph average on his heater. He’s been tagged for an ugly 11 earned runs over seven innings in two minor league rehab appearances, but he’s also fanned nine of 39 opponents in that time (23.1%) and issued just two walks (5.1%).
Verlander’s return should at least prevent the ’Stros from needing to give any more starts to any of the team’s rookies for the time being. He’ll step into the rotation alongside Cristian Javier, Blanco, France and Brown. Houston will hope for better results from sophomores France and Brown, both of whom were solid rotation pieces in their 2023 rookie showings. (Though France wilted in rather glaring fashion down the stretch last year.) Brown, in particular, was one of the game’s top pitching prospects prior to last year’s debut. He’s had an awful start to the season, headlined by a nine-run shellacking at the hands of the Royals, but he held a powerhouse Braves lineup to two runs over six innings in a rebound effort last night.
Turning back to Verlander specifically, the timing of his return bears particular importance. His two-year, $86.666MM contract contains a vesting $35MM player option for a third season. If he’s able to throw 140 innings in 2024, he’ll have the right to exercise that player option and lock himself in at $35MM next year — provided he finishes the season without an arm injury that would prevent him from pitching in 2025. If his shoulder causes further problems and sends him back to the injured list, the conditions of that player option will become far more pertinent. As it stands, the future Hall of Famer should have ample time to reach the requisite 140 frames.
Maybe they’ll be out of it by July and trade him at the deadline.
Not likely, but possible.
Nothing say desperation and rushing a guy back more then him still having discomfort and getting rocked for a 14 era and 14 h in 7 ip in two rehab starts. He will be back on the IL soon.
Right. Bc players in rehab and Spring Training are focused on strictly performance results rather than execution and staying prepared on a schedule.
Yep he was working on getting the pitches where they need to be for the big club.
Wouldn’t you say his execution was a little off though??
If his intentions were to strictly throw strikes, utilize pitch sequencing, and hit a certain pitch count, then no. If his main purpose was to get batters out while exploiting their weaknesses, then sure one can make the argument. It’s called a rehab throwing program for a reason and he’s not trying to prove his worth to earn a job.
Maybe you could say that if he didn’t still have soreness.
Nothing screams staying on schedule with soreness in the injured area.
Verlander last reported shoulder soreness on Feb. 14th – that was over two months ago. What in the good green earth are you talking about?
That’s not the report I read
You need new credible sources.
Here’s a direct statement from Verlander yesterday before his bullpen session:
“The first thing is health, and I came out of [Saturday’s game] feeling good,” Verlander said. “Obviously, I have some stuff to work on pitching-wise, but that’s kind of what Spring Training is for and what rehab starts are for. I felt better last time than I did the [rehab start] before, so just keep building on that, and like I always do, kind of work on stuff in the bullpen in between and keep trying to make it click.”
What soreness ?? Do you just make stuff up to comment ?
Do not bother with @mets6986??. He is a Verlander hater. He said recently that Verlander’s chances of reaching 140 innings were ‘pretty slim’. This despite Verlander reaching 162 innings last year, when he debuted even later in the season.
I do think he may struggle to get to 140 being another year older, likely more regression, and shoulder issues can linger. We’ll see, but I would take the under.
How can one be a Verlander hater? Look who he gets to come home every night to. Maybe jealousy is a better emotion for him
Good thing he’s starting off against the Nats instead of, say, the Phillies. Be interesting to see how long this latest repair job lasts. Hopefully, for the rest of the season.
Astros are off to an atrocious start, especially considering how they’ve been so good for the past 8 seasons now so Verlander will be a big boost to their rotation.
“Big boost to their rotation”…Anybody healthy will help, but at this point in his career Verlander is just a shadow of himself and a very expensive, oft injured “name” player. Neither Justin Verlander nor Max Scherzer have really been good for a few years now. What you get for the huge money, is constant injuries, rehabs, inconsistent performance, some headlines and a big “name” player.
Yeah, 2023 ERA+ almost exactly at his career Mark, and 2022 what a sht show. They’ll give the Cy Young to anyone these days
“2023 ERA+”…Spouting numbers is meaningless. Ask Steve Cohen if he would sign Verlander or Max Scherzer again and you’ll gain much more meaningful data. Even the eye test suggests the Astros won that World Series(’21 or ’22, I believe)more in spite of
Verlander, not because of him.
Dumbest post ever. Cause Steve Cohen wouldn’t sign them for 40+ million dollars, it means he had a bad year
“Dumbest post ever”…That tells me that you do not read your own posts, right liberal Steve?…Not only Cohen, but I’m certain the Rangers would not trade for Max Scherzer(at this point in his career) again nor would the Astros give up Ronald Acuna’s brother(if they had a do over) to reacquire Verlander because it’s not like he helped much in ’23. Max/Verlander are obvious Hofers, but shells of themselves in the year 2024.
Lmao at “name” player. You make it seem as if he is a washed up has been that just keeps latching on somewhere and that cannot be further from the truth. Even from just statically incorrect. If you want to think of a “name” player I can think of several. Prince Fielder comes to mind from the Rangers a out a decade or so ago. We, as educated fans of the game, understand that you are the type of person that sits in the front of the room with your arms raised and Waving to “pick me!pick me!” Without really knowing what the question is, much less the answer. I would gladly take a rotation full of JV’s and his shadow of himself type pitch than some of the others that are making it to the show from not just the Astros, but all of MLB. Circle the date kid, you got a comment posted and you ever got a couple responses like a big boy!!
“at this point in his career Verlander is just a shadow of himself”
Do people like you even look at stats before spouting off this nonsense? I get that you never watch him, but please take a look at his record. 2022: Cy Young winner, 175 innings of 218 ERA+. Last year: 162 innings of ERA+ 130. His career ERA+ is 132, by the way. He’s still a very effective, even elite at times, pitcher until proven otherwise.
The Rangers won the World Series. They don’t care about a prospect.
More “bad” to come because it sure is not good
At what point does the national media question Astros ownership and upper management for their failure to address their starting rotation over the past few years? We can’t keep saying that the rotation will be fine once it is healthy.
“Address their rotation”…You do know the Astros have been to, what 7 str8 ALCS appearances right?..Nothing lasts forever and the Astros have had arguably the best rotation in MLB for the better part of the last 8 yrs. If a team has 3-5 injured pitchers there’s really very little a team can do, except hope for health. In light of their 7 str8 ALCS appearances and 2 World Series wins, what would you have them do differently?
They spent the offseason knowing they would have multiple injuries and did nothing to address the known issue.
I thought they tried a bunch of things to improve their starting pitching. They could have tried to sign 1 or 2 of the starters who signed a 1 year for $10M or less. OR a trade. Injuries McCullers etc.
They may wish they had done that instead of signing Hader for relief.
Relief is moot if you don’t have a lead to protect. Plus they were near the CBT threshold and wanted to stay under. Not Go ALL In but a tweaking of the existing team
They are definitely at a kind of CrossRoads I believe.
Extend any of Bregman and Tucker OR None?
Re Assess at the All Star Break and then start to trade off ???
“Tried to sign 1 or 2 of the starters”…There’s some truth to that, although I don’t think a couple of band aid, mid level pitchers, really helps keeps them in contention. My biggest criticism is the Hader & Abreu contracts. The $150M wasted there could have kept Bregman or Tucker around long-term and now they probably lose both. You can’t necessarily predict or avoid pitching injuries, but you can avoid giving out risky contracts and giving any reliever not named Mariano Riviera 5 yrs/95M is simply a very bad business decision.
Nothing can be done about the Abreu/Montero signings, though Montero has been good so far this year and finished last year strong. I didn’t like the Hader signing. That was a long commitment when the window is probably closing, I would have preferred a couple of 1-year deals for SP’s and to bring back either Maton/Neris.
Free Trevor Bauer!
espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39958530/trevor-bauer-accu…
He is free. Been free for a while now.
Yes, but this time it means let him play in the MLB again.
He can play as soon as he finds a team. As I said, it’s been that way for a while.
Nobody is stopping him?
No. They just don’t want him. Pretty clear he can pitch. Pretty clear by now that he is not some sexual deviant, so if he remains unsigned, it’s got to be something else. Maybe it’s how he conducted himself as an employee when he was in the MLB.
Here’s my fearless go back in time hypothetical. Before Trevor goes to Japan he hops on his platforms, maintains his sexual abuse innocence but apologises to MLB for the way he weaponised his channel against them. Then he goes completely dark. No social media at all. Puts the sword in the scabbard on the field. Just does humbled baseball guy. Then after a successful year in terms of on field in Japan , he very quietly gets himself a credible agent and puts some “I’ll play for the minimum if you give me a chance” feelers out there. Then he just goes about his pitching this spring training like the same humbled baseball guy that no one has heard from. I think he would be much much closer to getting employed.
Poor Trev is his own worst enemy.
It’s just “MLB” not “the MLB.” Would you say “Major League Baseball” or “the Major League Baseball?”
Too late. Astros are out of the playoffs this year. Might as well fire sell the team and build it again.
well, let’s see here old york – after 20 games, Astros 4.5 games behind in their division
2023, after 20 games 2.5 back
2022, after 20 games 2.5 back
2021, after 20 games 3.5 back
Good time to bet on the team. The odds will be favorable.
Nice he will get enough innings to stick the Mets with a big bill for next year
He won’t even come close. The Astros are having a disastrous season and their rebuild will start this offseason.
He threw 162 1/3 innings last year. 140 IP is very attainable this season.
Dude, stop. We had this conversation two weeks ago. If he pitches even 25 starts this year, he will go through 140 innings easy. Barring another catastrophic injury, 140 innings is definitely in play here.
6/140
A rebuild started by trading Verlander in July for prospects to a contending team
Can they deactivate Espada at the same time?
Mets will pay 36.75 million for Verlander to pitch for someone else next year
well met are also paying max scherzer $40 mil to play for someone else
and bobby bonilla to play for nobody for about 25 years
Verlander always heals quick
He’s got the best doctor at home who helps him recover fast
Please please please please PLEASE dont hit 140 innings please
@808sAndMetsHeartbreaks Not to worry, comrade. The Mets have to pick up half the 2025 tab, making Verlander a 1/$17.5m SP if he reaches 140ip in 2024 *AND* if he decides to opt in (which he probably will unless he has such a good year that he figures he can squeeze 2/50m out of someone)..
He’ll probably be worth it. Smart guy, still has good stuff. If he can pitch he should be a decent #4, and if he gives you just 90-110 innings in 2025 that’ a decent exchange.
Remarkable, that a team as well run as the Astros can’t piece together the back end of rotation with an ERA no worse than 4.75-5.00.
Team OPS+ of 125 is Braves’ 2023 territory. Amazing that they’re 6 and 14.