Verlander may be 21 years into MLB career, but he's still a student of pitching

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

LAKELAND, Fla. – The breaking ball from Justin Verlander buckled at the front of home plate as Zach McKinstry watched it come in. He flinched ever so slightly at it, but didn’t offer.

“You saw that as less down than the slider,” Verlander asked, to which McKinstry nodded.

Verlander muttered to himself as he got the ball from catcher Dillon Dingler and stepped back towards the mound. As he climbed the hill, he turned back.

“But you wanted to swing at that more than you did the slide piece,” Verlander asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” McKinstry said.

Verlander gathered himself, reared back and fired a fastball past his new Tigers teammate. It wasn’t the blazing fastball that Verlander built and cultivated on these back fields at Tigertown years ago, but it was impressive for a live batting practice session.

“I mean, I've been somebody who freaks out about velocity ever since 2008, so I want it to push up,” Verlander said later, fully acknowledging his pitching history at the place where he laid the foundation for it two decades ago. “That's one of the things I would like to see tick up in a game. If it doesn't, then OK, I've been here before. Adrenaline isn't what I need. It's more reps and getting your body moving.”

Verlander’s live Spring Training sessions against hitters have always been fascinating. At times, they felt like a battle, not just against hitters but against himself. He would wear his frustrations on his sleeve at every pitch not executed to his admittedly high standard.

These days, his sessions feel more collaborative. He not only seeks feedback from his catcher and hitters, he’ll ask for it after a pitch, not just after a session. He wants to know what they’re seeing, especially on a pitch built for deception.

“It's a gyro slider, so it's not going to fool you with the movement,” Verlander said afterwards. “The pitch is to fool you to think it's a fastball. So any little thing that I do to deviate from that, if they're picking up on that, it makes it really hard for me to get outs with it.”

At the same time, Verlander acknowledges, “Zach is one of the best in baseball at not swinging at spin. He recognizes spin really well. So that's also something I need to take into account. Some people are just naturally better at things than others.”

Days like this Sunday morning session are a small part of what makes Verlander’s reunion with his original team so fascinating. At 43, he remains a perfectionist. If anything, maybe moreso, because he knows his margin for error is smaller without that 99-plus mph fastball he used to have. But through that perfectionist streak, he has the wisdom to recognize his blind spots.

He knows that game adrenaline changes everything, but he also knows that he can’t trust that as a cure-all. He also knows that his first start of the spring Friday against the Red Sox will carry a lot more than typical adrenaline.

He hasn’t pitched on the mound at Joker Marchant Stadium since 2017. But it’s more than a Spring Training site. The Tigers and Lakeland have had a special relationship for decades, and part of that was Verlander making this home for a while. To start his reunion here just seems fitting.

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“It makes me feel really good,” he said of the reaction to his return. “It's pretty cool. It's lingered on for longer than I thought. And walking around here for sure, just even driving around Lakeland – I mean, I lived here for the first seven or eight years of my career – so a lot of personal memories here, too. Just driving by places, a lot of stuff coming back.”

He has explained that to his family, particularly his daughter, who wasn’t born yet when he was a Tiger.

“It's interesting for her to talk about it, I think,” he said. “It's cool for me to be like, 'Hey, I spent the first 12 years of my career here and there's a lot of history there.' And she's like, 'Yeah, whatever, dad.' On to the next thing. But I think it's more personal for me and the family that's been around me and the fan base.”

It will become clear Friday and in the weeks to come leading up to Verlander’s return to Comerica Park wearing the Olde English D. He’s ready for it emotionally. But he wants to be ready for it physically, which is why those sessions on the back fields mean so much.