LAKELAND, Fla. -- From an early age, Justin Verlander talked about pitching into his mid-40s, with Nolan Ryan as a role model for longevity.
“I mean, since I was 22 years old, I’ve been saying I wanted to pitch til I was 45,” Verlander said last week during his reintroductory press conference.
He’s now one bit closer.
Friday marked Verlander’s 43rd birthday, a milestone that puts him in elite company among Tigers. Far from celebrating a milestone, he approached it like another workday, heading to the back fields and throwing his second bullpen session of the week with the same perfectionism he had in his previous outing. He looked at pitch shapes and metrics, talked with catcher Jake Rogers -- his first time throwing to the catcher who was part of his trade to Houston nine years ago -- and pitching coach Chris Fetter.
The Tigers celebrated on social media, but they left it quiet during their daily pre-workout meeting.
“I reference his age almost every day,” manager A.J. Hinch said, tongue in cheek, “so I thought today was an appropriate day not to reference it.”
Verlander gets it; it’s a big deal. And now that he’s more reflective, he looks back and wonders if he fully appreciated what a journey it would take to pitch this long.
“That was a pretty naive thing to say back then, looking back and seeing what I’ve gone through and how hard it is to get here,” he said. “But again, that kind of stubborn mentality is also what helps you achieve that goal.”
There are certainly times Verlander is reminded of that age. There are also times he can seemingly defy it without much trouble.
“Age isn’t really something that I think about all too often,” he said. “I think I still recover really well. I move really well. It is something, though, that I can take into consideration, particularly in the offseason, where I need to make some adjustments. I’ve been somebody who lifts heavy weights and does a lot of things that I probably need to monitor now a little differently.”
And just as Verlander’s longtime stubbornness has helped keep him on his game for two decades, his newfound reflectiveness and openness to ideas are arguably helping him, too.
“I’ve had some conversations with some older athletes -- Tom Brady, Tiger Woods, guys that have done things at the top of their game for a long time,” he said. “You can learn things from them, you know, how to maybe prolong your career a little bit, or things that they regret doing. I don’t really want to share that stuff, but yeah, just trying to always learn and adapt.
“And age is just a number, man. I think last year, particularly, I needed to prove to myself that I could go out there and repeat and get in a routine and pitch every five days and just show myself that I could be healthy again. That was the box that I really wanted to tick, and I was able to do that. And then once I got in that routine, I was starting to feel good again and start pitching and start having some success, and, 'OK, wow, I can do this and still be really successful like I thought I could.' That’s always in the back of mind.”
That success down the stretch is a big reason he’s back in Detroit. President of baseball operations Scott Harris had no obligation to a reunion or ties to sentimentality. But the way Verlander pitched over the final couple of months last season made him an ideal addition when the Tigers lost Reese Olson to a right shoulder injury.
There’s an irony to Verlander’s return at this age. According to Baseball Reference, only one player has pitched for the Tigers at age 43: Kenny Rogers, who pitched the entire 2008 season at that age and made 30 starts. Rogers was signed as one of Verlander’s mentors during his Rookie of the Year season in 2006, when Rogers was 41.
Rogers made his final MLB appearance on Sept. 14, 2008, at 43 years, 309 days. Even if Verlander pitches the full season and makes a World Series run, he won’t be the oldest player to pitch for the Tigers. But if he can put up another solid season, who’s to say he can’t be in the same spot next spring, talking about pitching at age 44?