HOUSTON — He captured championships and Cy Young Awards while authoring a career renaissance few of his counterparts can comprehend, but Justin Verlander’s most indelible memory as a Houston Astro arrived amid an awful stretch of his storied career. Verlander surrendered six earned runs and failed to finish the fifth inning during his final home start in downtown Houston. Still, he exited the field to a standing ovation that “meant a lot” and, to this day, makes Verlander emotional. The crowd understood something the pitcher himself did not.
“I didn’t even really realize it was my last start here or potentially my last start,” Verlander said on Monday. If Verlander had his way this winter, it may not have been. Verlander and Astros owner Jim Crane had “mutual interest” in a reunion, according to Verlander, who acknowledged he “would always entertain the idea of coming back here.” Instead, Verlander signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the San Francisco Giants.
Upon his return to Houston on Monday, Verlander said he spoke with Crane “a lot” throughout the winter — including after the Giants began their serious pursuit. “Jim is like, ‘We’re not even in a place to make an offer right now,'” Verlander said. “I appreciated the candidness. That was kind of that for me.” Verlander’s contract with the Giants became official on January 11 — after the Astros had made most of their consequential offseason moves.
Throughout the winter, multiple team sources said the club operated as if it could not cross the luxury tax. Verlander’s salary would’ve put Houston over the threshold for the second consecutive season. Asked last week whether he gave a mandate to remain under the luxury tax, Crane replied, “We don’t really stay focused on that. We really stay focused on winning and putting the best combination of players we can put on the field.”
“Once you get the ball rolling with negotiations, you just don’t know how things are going to play out,” Verlander said. “I’ve seen that play out before when I went to New York and then this time. I loved my time here and it’s something that’s really special to me. Of course, the opportunity to play here is always something that’s on my mind.”
The nature of Verlander and Crane’s relationship always made any reunion in Houston feasible, even if the Astros did not have an acute need for starting pitching this winter. Crane engineered two trades for Verlander — including one after allowing Verlander to sign with the Mets in 2023 — and gave the 42-year-old right-hander two contract extensions during an eight-year Astros career that cemented him as perhaps the best pitcher in franchise history.
Verlander won two American League Cy Young Awards, finished runner-up for another, notched his 3,000th career strikeout and picked up the only World Series win of his career while wearing an Astros uniform. Houston made the American League Championship Series in all but one season Verlander pitched, winning two World Series titles. Such success raises a logical question: Will Verlander become the first starting pitcher to enter the Hall of Fame wearing an Astros cap? Radio host Dan Patrick posed it to Verlander earlier this month and, on Monday, he confronted it again.
“Some really special things happened here,” Verlander said outside the third-base dugout at Daikin Park. “I’m not blowing smoke, this is just how I operate: I let things just kind of happen and just make decisions when I have all the information.” The Baseball Hall of Fame does make the final decision on which caps appear on an inductee’s plaque, though it does so after consultation with the inductees and their families. Verlander’s only other choice is to represent the Detroit Tigers, the club that drafted him second overall in 2004 and witnessed his ascension into a generational great.
Verlander won an MVP, Rookie of the Year and one Cy Young Award while posting a 3.49 ERA during his 13-year Tigers tenure. “You just never know how things will play out,” Verlander said. “You don’t know how things will play out with me and Detroit in the future, so it’s not a decision I can really even think about that much right now. Quite honestly, I try not to.”
After a wild offseason, the Houston Astros are off to a nice start this campaign. There was no team in baseball that was as busy as the Astros, and after their early elimination from the playoffs for the first time in seven years, the team really shook things up. While some of the more notable departures were Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman, Houston also saw future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander leave in free agency.
It was a down season for the right-hander in 2024. He battled a neck injury for much of the campaign which resulted in poor production. Due to his age, there was reason to believe that it could have been father time coming for the 42-year-old. However, he looked sharp this spring and had a good start to the season for the San Francisco Giants.
Even though he has had a ton of success and great moments in his two stints with Houston, he was surprisingly never offered a contract. Justin Verlander said today he spoke with Astros owner Jim Crane “a lot” in the offseason and that there was “mutual interest” in a reunion with the Astros. When the Giants came after Verlander, Crane said the Astros “were not even in a place to make an offer,” Verlander said.
With the Astros being in what felt like a permanent state of flux this winter, it’s easy to understand why they didn’t prioritize the veteran right-hander coming off the performance he had. The franchise seemed very focused on decreasing their payroll this winter, especially when looking at the decisions to trade Ryan Pressly and Kyle Tucker.
Even though Verlander had a poor season with Houston, he still received a one-year, $15 million deal from the Giants. Considering the Astros’ rotation is in pretty good shape with some pitchers hopefully returning later in the year, spending that kind of money on the future Hall of Famer was not something they were willing to do. But, depending on how well he does in San Francisco, Houston might come to regret that decision.
