Justin Verlander is a Detroit Tiger again, hoping to lead his original team to a third trip to the World Series.
Verlander, the 266-game winner who will celebrate his 43rd birthday this month, agreed to a one-year, $13 million contract with the Tigers, the club announced Feb. 10.
That presumably wraps up a Tigers off-season that finished with plenty of fireworks: The three-year, $115 million agreement with left-hander Framber Valdez, Tarik Skubal’s historic $32 million arbitration victory and now Verlander.
The presence of Skubal, set to become a free agent this season, Valdez, Jack Flaherty and 2025 All-Star Casey Mize ensures the Tigers won’t need to lean on Verlander for much more than 150 innings. He’s made no secret that he’d like to get to 300 wins, yet playing for an offense-poor club in San Francisco last season, posted a 4-11 record with a 3.85 ERA.
He finished particularly strongly, with a 1.96 ERA and 3.72 fielding independent pitching over his last seven starts.
The Tigers would take that. They reached the 2006 World Series in Verlander’s rookie year, and again in 2012, when they were swept by the San Francisco Giants. Last year, Detroit blew a 14-game lead and lost the division title to Cleveland, yet advanced to the American League Division Series as a wild card, losing a five-game thriller to Seattle.
Perhaps an old hand can help nudge them over the top.