Veteran right-handed pitcher Justin Verlander is projected to be one of the marquee starting pitchers that will be on the free-agent market this winter.
So it’s no surprise that the Yankees are interested.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported on Wednesday, just hours before MLB’s qualifying offer deadline, that the Yankees were among three teams — also the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox — that could pursue the 38-year-old.
Additional reports added that the Atlanta Braves are also in the mix.
Verlander reportedly wants to join a team that plays on the East coast, is a contender, and trains in Florida. The Yankees check all those boxes — though Toronto, Boston, and the defending-champion Braves certainly do, as well.
The eight-time All-Star, two-time AL Cy Young Award winner, and the 2011 MVP who also won the pitching Triple Crown hasn’t pitched since the 2020 season, which lasted just six innings due to Tommy John surgery before the rehabilitation process sidelined him for all of 2021.
Regardless, there still seems to be a belief that the veteran can still be one of the premier pitchers of the American League.
After nearly a five-year regression with the Detroit Tigers, Verlander was dealt to the Houston Astros where he regained his Hall-of-Fame-worthy stuff. In three-and-a-half years with the team, he went 43-15 with a 2.45 ERA, a 0.834 WHIP, and a 12.1 strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate.
That included a 2019 season in which he won the AL Cy Young, going 21-6 with a 2.58 ERA.
The Yankees are expected to be heavy players in the starting-pitching market this offseason after the starting rotation failed to consistently stay afloat throughout the 2021 season. Luis Severino’s absence only hurt a team that relied heavily on Gerrit Cole while hoping for a major resurgence from both Jameson Taillon and Corey Kluber.
