Verlander has the millionaire offer from his Astros

Justin Verlander has been loyal to only two major league teams in his 17-year career: the Detroit Tigers and since 2017, to the Houston Astros. The 39-year-old pitcher has to define in weeks of excitement for the effect World Series if in 2023 he will be a free agent or if he takes the option of $25 million with the Texans for a year. But if he gets a longer contract, his annual salary would be close to 43.3 million like the one Max Scherzer (38 years old) has with the New York Mets.

The pitcher who planted his roots in the Detroit minor leagues is today the oldest player to fall to free agency with the best salary this 2022 and with the best economic proposal to stay. Verlander is 100% with his Astros, who this year will be remembered as the team that defeated the great season of the Dodgers.

As for his career, the reward points to a Hall of Fame, because in the current Fall Classic he can obtain his third Cy Young award from the american league, which places him among the historical ones who achieved it those times. They are: Roger Clemens (7), Randy Johnson (5), Steve Carlton and Greg Maddux (4), Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, Pedro Martinez, Jim Palmer, Tom Seaver and Sandy Koufax (3).

Verlander has had a good season in his return from surgery Tommy John, winning 18 games while leading the majors in ERA (1.75) and WHIP (0.83). Also, he is 0-6 with a 5.68 ERA in seven World Series starts of his career, making this the only stage he has yet to conquer.

“However, it’s not my goal (to be the record-breaking pitcher in the World Series). My goal is not to go out there and win a baseball game. There have been games in the World Series where I didn’t deserve a win. There have been games where I thought I pitched well enough that we could get a win and it just wasn’t… It’s been a great ride no matter what. Whether I stay or not, I really enjoyed my time with this group of guys, the city and getting to know her. It’s really been a blessing and a wonderful time in my career (…) Now I’m trying not to think about free agency, I mean, we talk a lot about how this year I just tried to be more in the moment and be present, enjoy the ride and yeah, that will happen, we’ll see,” he said before Game 5 against the Phillies.

Verlander is no stranger to great deals. He won two of them when he was the ace for the Tigers. The seven-year, $180 million extension he signed with Detroit in 2013 made him the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history. Before that mega deal, the Tigers locked up an arbitration-eligible Verlander with a five-year, $80 million contract that began in 2010. The $180 million deal included the final two years of that deal.

The Astros signed him to a two-year extension and 66 million two years after trading him during his 2017 World Series run.

deportes@eleconomista.mx