Justin Verlander, whose relentless desire to pitch deep into games and into age made him the greatest pitcher of his generation, is handing off the ball at last. The Tigers right-hander – all but certainly a future Hall of Famer – announced Wednesday that he plans to retire at season’s end. The announcement came shortly after Verlander was named to his 10th All-Star Game as a Legend Pick by Commissioner Rob Manfred to recognize his greatness over a 21-year Major League career.
The 43-year-old Verlander, currently on the 60-day injured list due to hip and hamstring injuries, joins Phillies slugger Bryce Harper as Legend Picks for next Tuesday’s Midsummer Classic in Philadelphia. Verlander is the second Tiger to earn such a selection; his longtime teammate Miguel Cabrera was selected in 2022 by the Commissioner after recording his 3,000th career hit that April and his 500th home run the previous summer. Cabrera retired after the following season. Verlander will get a shorter farewell tour, but a similar chance for fans to acknowledge and thank him – first at Citizens Bank Park, then at Comerica Park.
"I never wanted to retire because of a milestone, a number, or a date on the calendar," Verlander wrote in a statement posted to social media. "I wanted the game to tell me when it was time. Over the last several months, I've realized that time has come. While I'm fully committed to giving my team everything I have for the rest of this season, I've decided this will be my last. It's fitting that I get to finish where it all started -- with the Detroit Tigers."
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Verlander will go to the All-Star Game in a Tigers uniform for the first time since 2013, when he was part of a star-studded AL pitching staff that included then-Tigers teammate Max Scherzer. Verlander dreamed big then, talking openly about pitching well into his 40s. He earned six All-Star selections over his initial Tigers tenure, a 13-year run, then added three more with the Astros, with whom he pitched from 2017-24.
Verlander’s career ranks among the greatest for a pitcher in his generation and for the Modern Era (since 1900). His 3,554 strikeouts rank eighth in MLB history. His 266 wins rank 37th, and his 82.3 bWAR ranks 24th among pitchers. He sits with Don Newcombe as the only players in MLB history to win Rookie of the Year, Cy Young and MVP honors in his career. He’s one of just six pitchers in history to throw three no-hitters, having done so twice as a Tiger (2007, '11) and once with Houston (2019).
Acquired by the Astros in a buzzer-beating deal at the 2017 Trade Deadline, Verlander became a key piece of two Houston World Series titles. He posted a 1.06 ERA in five regular-season starts just after the trade and won ALCS MVP honors that October en route to his first ring. Five years later, he picked up another; while not as dominant in the '22 postseason, he set the tone in the Astros' ALCS sweep of the Yankees with an 11-strikeout gem in Game 1.
Verlander’s durability for the vast majority of his career set standards for his generation. He has won 20 games in a season twice, including 21 victories in his age-36 season in 2019. Among his three Cy Young seasons was his age-39 campaign in 2022, when he posted an 18-4 record and 1.75 ERA with Houston.
Verlander pitched a dozen 200-inning seasons over a 13-year span from 2007 (age 24) through 2019 (age 36). He has nine 200-strikeout seasons to his credit, capped by a 300-strikeout campaign in 2019, when he won his second Cy Young. His 556 starts rank 29th all time. Given the changing role of the starting pitcher, he and Scherzer might be the last to compile some of these marks.
Until current Tigers ace Tarik Skubal emerged from being a ninth-round pick in the 2018 MLB Draft to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards, Verlander was the franchise’s greatest Draft selection since homegrown champions Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jack Morris and Lance Parrish. Former Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski and scouting director Greg Smith drafted Verlander second overall in 2004, then watched the former Old Dominion product blossom into a power-fastball, buckling-curveball strikeout machine. He won AL Rookie of the Year honors in 2006 while helping lead the Tigers to their first World Series berth since 1984.
In 2011, Verlander led MLB with 24 wins and 250 strikeouts while pacing the AL with a 2.40 ERA. Not only did he win MVP and Cy Young honors that season, he fronted a dominant rotation that hurled Detroit into a new era of glory. The Tigers won four consecutive AL Central titles from 2011-14, with Cy Young winners Verlander, Scherzer and Rick Porcello as the constants atop a rotation that also featured Aníbal Sánchez and David Price.
Verlander outlasted them all in Detroit before his trade to the Astros. It marked the end of an era for the Tigers, and the start of a rebuild that lasted seven years and included two managerial changes and a front-office shift. Verlander, too, had his twists and turns, from a half-season with the Mets to a trade back to Houston, then a one-year deal with the Giants last season.
Verlander brought his career full circle in February, signing a one-year deal to return to Detroit and fill out a rotation that includes Skubal and All-Star Casey Mize. Verlander, coming off a strong late-season run with the Giants, hoped to be the piece that helped the Tigers take the next step toward World Series contention. But he has yet to get a chance to pitch at Comerica Park again. After a rough season debut on the road in Arizona, he went on the injured list April 1 with left hip inflammation and hasn’t made it back despite a series of simulated games and rehab assignments.
Just when Verlander was lined up to return from the hip issue last month, a left hamstring strain he suffered during his side work scuttled those plans again, leaving Verlander both exasperated and introspective about his career.
He didn’t want to talk about retirement at the time, but he hinted at it.
“You guys have known me long enough,” Verlander said a couple weeks ago. “There’s no giving up. This is halfway through a season that I committed to the Tigers for. Nobody envisioned it going this way, but I also intend on trying to give it my everything until the season’s over.
“Once that happens, I don’t know, man. It’s a different conversation now than it was last year when I seemed to be really healthy – a lot of thoughts that I’m going to have to take into consideration. My family is up here with me now. My son is turning 1, my daughter is 7. There’s a lot of things that are also going on in my life that are a draw away from the game. But I’ve always said I want to play until the wheels fall off. I don’t know, maybe they are falling off. I hope not.”
It wasn’t the first time Verlander acknowledged an eventual victory for Father Time. He has been introspective since Spring Training, talking about appreciating moments more now than during his first Tigers tenure, acknowledging ovations and relishing interactions. It has been a dose of reality from a pitcher who arrived in the big leagues hoping to emulate Nolan Ryan for longevity and greatness. He won’t pitch to age 46 like Ryan, but he has become the Ryan of his era, and a pitcher many of his current teammates grew up idolizing.
Wednesday’s announcement gives Verlander a chance at the farewell and thank-you he has hinted at for a while. If he can get past the injuries, he still has some fastballs in that right arm on his way out.