Tag: Justin Verlander

Why Justin Verlander isn’t on the Astros’ Wild Card playoff roster

Here’s the answer.

If you’re looking for Justin Verlander on the mound for the Houston Astros in their Wild Card series against the Detroit Tigers in 2024, you won’t find him.

But why is the future Hall of Fame pitcher not on the bump for the franchise he’s won a World Series with?

Good question. Here’s the answer: Verlander was left off the Wild Card roster after having a pretty terrible season in which he had a 5.48 ERA. He also missed a couple of months with a shoulder issue.

But given the depth the Astros have on the mound with guys like Yusei Kikuchi, Framber Valdez and Ronel Blanco, they may not need him.

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MLB fans had so many jokes after Justin Verlander’s curveball completely embarrassed Edouard Julien

He lost his bat AND helmet.

When Justin Verlander signed with the Mets this past offseason, he probably expected to be playing October baseball at Citi Field. But a shockingly poor season from the Mets led to the three-time Cy Young Award winner getting postseason baseball in a familiar place elsewhere.

Saturday’s Game 1 of the American League Division Series was a perfect example of why the Astros traded back for Verlander in August. He was sensational on the afternoon, and the Twins’ Edouard Julien would probably agree.

Verlander went six innings of scoreless, four-hit baseball in the 6-4 win, and no moment summed up his dominant outing better than his fifth-inning strikeout of Julien.

The 77 mph curveball sent both Julien’s bat and helmet flying in opposite directions. Like, whoa.

Julien doubled off Verlander in his first at-bat, but after that, we know who won that battle. Of course MLB fans roasted Julien for the wild swing. It’s never a good sign when equipment goes sailing everywhere.

Mics picked up Justin Verlander’s NSFW response to Alex Cora during a PitchCom issue

Sound on!

In an effort to cut down on sign-stealing, MLB instituted the PitchCom as an option for teams in 2022. The system allows the pitcher and catcher to communicate calls through an earpiece and wristband — rather than the catcher showing fingers to call pitches.

Like anything with technology, the system isn’t perfect. It malfunctions on occasion, and some pitchers have even claimed to have PitchCom issues just to buy some extra time in the pitch-clock era.

Just don’t accuse Justin Verlander of doing that — he won’t take kindly to it.

During Tuesday’s game between the Red Sox and Astros, Verlander signaled in the second inning that he was having trouble with his PitchCom. Red Sox manager Alex Cora wasn’t buying it. He emerged from the dugout to have some words with Verlander and home plate umpire Pat Hoberg. That was when Verlander channeled his inner Logan Roy, and mics picked up all of it. (NSFW language)

If Verlander was really trying to buy time, it certainly wouldn’t have been in that situation — nobody on in the second inning with no outs. He genuinely seemed to be having trouble with PitchCom and even had to switch out a system that was set to Spanish.

Cora and Verlander– who both were in Houston for the initial Astros sign-stealing scandal — having that argument was ironic in its own right. But if there is any takeaway from the exchange, it’s that we need more uncensored conversations from baseball games. That one conversation showed fans a side of the game that they hardly get to experience.

Justin Verlander responds to ‘diva’ talk from Mets staffer with a subtly salty statement

The former Mets pitcher responded to the person who alleged he was a “diva.”

Things with Justin Verlander and the New York Mets ended with the defending Cy Young winner getting dealt back to the Houston Astros, and that was the right move for both the franchise and for the ace.

But then? We got the ol’ anonymous quote from a former Verlander teammate treatment.

Specifically, from the New York Post on Aug. 12: “A Met told Puma that Verlander was a ‘diva’ who was detached from his Mets teammates and complained about how the team’s analytics department was not at the level as the one he worked with during his first stint with the Astros. And it was that ‘diva’ attitude caused [Max] Scherzer to grumble some about Verlander.”

Whew. We now head over to Verlander, who posted this on X Monday afternoon:

There’s a lot going on here. “That being said,” coupled with talk of “constructive criticism” feels subtly salty. There’s a lot of speculation about whether that means he let his criticisms about the Mets’ analytics department be heard.

The Mets won the MLB trade deadline by giving up (nearly) everything they could

This was far better than when the Mets got Noah Syndergaard and Zack Wheeler for R.A. Dickey and Carlos Beltran.

It is a bitter pill to swallow when a front office effectively decides that the season is a lost cause, but the Mets played this one perfectly.

Although they were a popular preseason pick to win the World Series, this team never materialized into anything other than a middling mess. It wasn’t going anywhere and they were a $350 million disaster.

The Mets (50-55) had a losing record heading into the MLB trade deadline and it was time to pull the plug. Despite winning over 100 games last season and then making flashy moves like signing Justin Verlander, this was a team simply not succeeding on the field.

So ownership and the front office decided to effectively throw in the towel for the remainder of this failed season. The odds are strong that they may effectively punt on next year, too, unless that was just lip service to get Max Scherzer to waive his no-trade clause.

For what it is worth: Mets star Francisco Lindor says he is still convinced that the Mets are positioning themselves as a winning franchise. They just, as planned, improved their farm system in the process.

New York is assuredly one of the suitors for superstar Shohei Ohtani in free agency. The AL MVP frontrunner is apparently getting recruited by Mets pitcher Kodai Senga and recently posed for a photo with Mets legend Dwight Gooden.

But in the meanwhile, the Mets opted to cash in their veteran arms and received some young talent in return. Remember when New York traded a veteran Carlos Beltran for the promising Zack Wheeler in July 2011 or the aging R.A. Dickey for Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud in December 2012?

This feels like history repeating itself but with far more magnitude.

Scherzer (39 years old), Verlander (40) and reliever David Robertson (38) were all moved before the deadline. Mark Canha (34) and Tommy Pham (35) were traded from New York. That sounds like a bad thing, especially after so much money was spent to acquire these big names.

But many of these players were potentially on their way out soon, anyway.

The Mets received notable names including infielder Luisangel Acuña (21 years old), outfielder Drew Gilbert (22), outfielder Ryan Clifford (20), infielder Marco Vargas (18), catcher Ronald Hernandez (19), pitcher Justin Jarvis (23) and infielder Jeremy Rodriguez (17) in return.

It was a “years-long rebuild over the course of a week” for the Mets, as noted by Anthony DiComo.

Acuña, Gilbert, Clifford and Vargas immediately become some of the most notable names in the New York farm system. All four were considered top-101 prospects by Baseball Prospectus. Gilbert was a collegiate teammate of Blade Tidwell, a top pitching prospect for the Mets, at Tennessee.

MLB.com projects Acuña and Jarvis should arrive in the majors by next season. Gilbert (2024-25) and Clifford (2026) are not terribly far off on the timeline, either.

If even one or two of these players develop the way that the Mets saw from Wheeler and Syndergaard, this would be a tremendous return.

As the Mets retool with a more youthful roster, meanwhile, fans should probably expect to see more playing time for those already within their farm systems (e.g. infielder Ronny Mauricio as well as pitchers Coleman Crow, José Butto and Grant Hartwig).

This season wasn’t ideal for the Mets but they dramatically improved their middle-of-the-road farm system without surrendering core players like Francisco Lindor (29 years old), Pete Alonso (28), Brett Baty (23), Francisco Alvarez (21) as well as veterans like Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil.

Soon, the Mets may have a top-tier farm system. Already, via FanGraphs, they have more hitting prospects (five) with an overall Future Value grade of at least 50 than any other organization in the MLB.

While their long-term pitching plans are still suspect outside of Senga, this was a massive win to add so much young talent to a roster that is still mostly intact.

Now, they can replenish their rotation in free agency (even if they do miss out on Ohtani), add reliever Edwin Diaz back once he recovers from his injury, or use some of these young players to acquire the next star to hit the trade block.

That is a much better scenario than finishing the season with a losing record and a few players past their prime.

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18 adorable photos of Kate Upton and Justin Verlander through the years

A look back at the couple through the years.

Justin Verlander is back in the World Series, and that means we got to see another great set of snaps of him and Kate Upton celebrating on the field together.

Through the years, we’ve seen so many adorable moments, from the custom jackets Upton’s wore to root on the Houston Astros pitcher, all the times they’ve won Instagram, their wedding in Italy and so much more.

So it’s a good time as any to put together some photos of them over the years, from early in their relationship to after they got married in 2017.

Here’s a look at the pair over the years:

Swapping Jacob deGrom for Justin Verlander actually improved the Mets’ World Series odds

Oddsmakers are over Jake.

Only days after watching starter Jacob deGrom—arguably the greatest pitcher of his generation—leave for the Texas Rangers, the New York Mets added reigning Cy Young-winner Justin Verlander on a two-year, $86 million deal.

As far as the argument for which pitcher means more for their team, it appears the Mets and Verlander have the edge.

Over at BetMGM, the Mets’ 2023 World Series odds went on a rollercoaster ride, moving from +1100 before deGrom left for Texas, to +1700 after he signed with the Rangers and then back up to +900 on Monday following the acquisition of Verlander.

Yes, that’s correct. Oddsmakers believe Verlander provides more value to the Mets than deGrom.

Here’s how the two players stack up going back to 2018:

Jacob deGrom

Standard Pitching
Year Age Tm Lg W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W Awards
2018 30 NYM NL 10 9 .526 1.70 32 32 0 1 0 0 217.0 152 48 41 10 46 3 269 5 0 2 835 218 1.98 0.912 6.3 0.4 1.9 11.2 5.85 AS,CYA-1,MVP-5
2019 31 NYM NL 11 8 .579 2.43 32 32 0 0 0 0 204.0 154 59 55 19 44 1 255 7 0 2 804 169 2.67 0.971 6.8 0.8 1.9 11.3 5.80 AS,CYA-1,MVP-10
2020 32 NYM NL 4 2 .667 2.38 12 12 0 0 0 0 68.0 47 21 18 7 18 0 104 0 0 4 268 180 2.26 0.956 6.2 0.9 2.4 13.8 5.78 CYA-3
2021 33 NYM NL 7 2 .778 1.08 15 15 0 1 1 0 92.0 40 14 11 6 11 0 146 1 0 0 324 373 1.24 0.554 3.9 0.6 1.1 14.3 13.27 AS,CYA-9
2022 34 NYM NL 5 4 .556 3.08 11 11 0 0 0 0 64.1 40 22 22 9 8 0 102 0 0 0 239 126 2.13 0.746 5.6 1.3 1.1 14.3 12.75
162 Game Avg. 13 9 .590 2.52 34 34 0 1 0 0 216 166 66 61 19 49 2 261 3 0 4 849 155 2.62 0.998 6.9 0.8 2.1 10.9 5.30
Justin Verlander
Standard Pitching
Year Age Tm Lg W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W Awards
2018 35 HOU AL 16 9 .640 2.52 34 34 0 1 1 0 214.0 156 63 60 28 37 0 290 8 2 5 833 164 2.78 0.902 6.6 1.2 1.6 12.2 7.84 AS,CYA-2,MVP-10
2019 36 HOU AL 21 6 .778 2.58 34 34 0 2 1 0 223.0 137 66 64 36 42 0 300 6 0 4 847 179 3.27 0.803 5.5 1.5 1.7 12.1 7.14 AS,CYA-1,MVP-11
2020 37 HOU AL 1 0 1.000 3.00 1 1 0 0 0 0 6.0 3 2 2 2 1 0 7 0 0 0 21 156 5.69 0.667 4.5 3.0 1.5 10.5 7.00
2022 39 HOU AL 18 4 .818 1.75 28 28 0 0 0 0 175.0 116 43 34 12 29 0 185 6 0 3 666 220 2.49 0.829 6.0 0.6 1.5 9.5 6.38 AS,CYA-1,MVP-10
162 Game Avg. 17 9 .647 3.24 34 34 0 2 1 0 223 187 87 80 23 62 2 226 7 1 6 909 132 3.36 1.117 7.6 0.9 2.5 9.1 3.63
W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W Awards
Verlander missed two seasons while recovering from Tommy John surgery and all he did was come back in 2022 to win the American League Cy Young, a World Series title and pitch likely the best season of his life.
The Mets are banking on him being able to replicate that for at least two more years as he joins a rotation with former Detroit Tigers teammate Max Scherzer.
Oddsmakers certainly believe it’s possible. But the Mets haven’t won the World Series since 1986 and the National League East is reloading up and down the division once again.
Either way, it’s a positive sign for New York given how the offseason started out.
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9 photos of Kate Upton and Justin Verlander celebrating the Astros’ World Series win

Kate Upton and Justin Verlander had a a lot of fun celebrating another World Series title.

The Houston Astros won their second World Series title in six years with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 6 on Saturday night that had all of Houston partying late into the early morning.

After the victory Kate Upton had some sweet things to say about her husband, Astros ace Justin Verlander, about watching him pitch and also about how good of a father he is to their daughter. It was all a lot of fun for the 39-year old pitcher, his wife, and all of his teammates and coaches.

Here are nine photos for Verlander and Upton, who got married in 2017, celebrating the Astros World Series title.

Kate Upton’s great answer when asked after World Series if she’d want Justin Verlander to retire

What a sweet moment.

The Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1, Saturday night in Game 6 to win the World Series in front of their home crowd and set off a party in the their stadium and in their city that is probably still going on.

Kate Upton and her husband, Astros ace Justin Verlander, had a special moment after the game when the Fox Sports postgame show asked her if she’d want to see her husband, who is 39 years old, retire now that he has won his second World Series title.

Upton had a sweet message for Verlander, who seemed to like it even though it appeared to make him blush a little bit.

 

She also had this to say about her husband and family:

Some cool moments there for the Verlanders.

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