The Orioles have shown interest in Justin Verlander, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. While the O’s are the first club publicly tied to the future Hall of Famer beyond the incumbent Giants, Rosenthal unsurprisingly writes that Verlander has received interest from multiple teams.
Baltimore has made a pair of rotation additions this offseason. They sent four prospects and a draft pick to the Rays for Shane Baz, whom they control for three years. Baltimore also brought Zach Eflin back on a one-year, $10MM deal after an injury-riddled season. They’re in decent shape from a depth perspective. It still feels a little light at the top end. They’re banking on Kyle Bradish in his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. Trevor Rogers was fantastic over 18 starts but was in Triple-A as recently as last May. Baz has shown upper mid-rotation talent but very little consistency on a start to start basis.
Framber Valdez, arguably this offseason’s best free agent pitcher, remains unsigned. The Orioles have shown interest throughout the winter. They have enough controllable position player talent to make a move on the trade front if someone like Freddy Peralta or MacKenzie Gore becomes available. Rosenthal suggests that the Orioles could view Verlander more as a fallback option if they don’t come away with a higher-ceiling arm.
At age 43, Verlander no longer has that kind of upside. He showed last season that he still has plenty left in the tank, though. He made 29 starts for the Giants and pitched 152 innings of 3.85 ERA ball. Verlander recorded a 20.7% strikeout rate while walking around 8% of batters faced. His 11% swinging strike rate was his highest since he won his third career Cy Young with the Astros in 2022. Verlander has maintained a 94 MPH average fastball and pitched well after an early-season pec strain cost him a month. He turned in a 3.60 ERA behind a 22% strikeout percentage over his final 19 starts.
Like Valdez, Verlander has ties to Baltimore president of baseball operations Mike Elias. The O’s front office leader was an assistant general manager in Houston during the pitcher’s first season and a half with the Astros. Verlander would also align with Baltimore’s history of free agent spending under Elias. His front office has yet to sign a free agent starter to a multi-year deal, and they’ve frequently targeted older starters (e.g. Kyle Gibson, Tomoyuki Sugano, Charlie Morton) to secure shorter commitments. Verlander figures to sign one-year contracts for the remainder of his career.
Last winter’s rotation moves backfired. None of Morton, Sugano or Gibson met expectations and the rotation’s disastrous performance early in the season dug a hole from which the Orioles couldn’t recover. The O’s made a four-year offer to Corbin Burnes and took on a year and a half of Eflin’s contract via trade in 2024, so they’re not firmly committed to one-year commitments. Still, it’s true that signing Verlander would be more in line with their previous activity than a five- or six-year deal for Valdez would be.
The Orioles have opened the checkbook a few times this offseason, most notably on their $155MM Pete Alonso signing. RosterResource projects their 2026 payroll at $149MM, about $10MM below where they began the ’25 season. Alonso, Tyler O’Neill and Samuel Basallo are their only players signed beyond this season. O’Neill’s deal is up after 2027, while Basallo doesn’t make a salary north of $4MM until 2030 (the final year of Alonso’s contract).
He looks good in orange and black
Who doesn’t?
2019 Chris Davis
Going to the Dodgers for $15 million, $1m signing bonus, $4m salary for 26 and $10m deferred to be paid seven days after his death to his estate…
dbith
This. But without the dumb deferral joke.
omg an mlbtraderumor post thats actually a rumor
how they name their page “rumors” and only like 2% of posts are rumors is odd
Their whole site has always been copy and paste news from Twitter/X.
I don’t mind the one stop shop though
As an O’s fan, this news stings a bit.
Time to write off the Orioles – just not interested in putting a rotation that can top the AL; they’re trying to lowball Framber, playing coy with Gallen, but pack the starting 5 with Eflin & Verlander? C’mon…
Didn’t they just do this bit last year with Charlie Morton?
Why don’t we check in on Jamie Moyer? Surely he’s now rested and available, and old enough to be in the Orioles rotation.
Rich Hill!
Y’all meant to post this 10 years ago right? Right?!
Giolito is a much better fall-back option with a higher ceiling.
Have to agree with a few previous posts. I mean c’mon, they can’t be serious trying to take on the rest of the east with a half arsed rotation? It’s ludicrous and either the gm or owner is at fault here.
Sounding like Mike didn’t learn his lesson last year. Sign Framber or trade for Gore, Peralta, or Pivetta.
I can’t wait to hear how the FO goofed on Ranger Suarez. There is no reason why the Orioles couldn’t beat the offer.
…time will tell, but time is running.
I still believe Elias will hat-rabbit something. His best work has been done on the QT when it comes to getting SP.
If they sign him, both Blue Jays and Red Sox fans can breathe a sigh of relief, because this would definitely hurt the O’s.
Without knowing a whole lot about Verlander’s clubhouse presence, I still got to,think he offers valuable veteran leadership for a budding rotation.
I love me some Verlander, but, even though he looks to still have maybe a season or so left in him, this is not the signing my O’s need. Not if they know Eflin is going to immediately start the season on the IL, or if they hadn’t already signed him altogether, then sure, signing JV ain’t a bad idea to finalize the back end of your rotation.
I would say its merely playing hard ball with Valdez and Gallen but its so blatantly obvious that I don’t think its even worth floating the rumor out there. And I’m not sure why you would even try to play hardball with free agents after Rubenstein has shown willingness to spend.