Justin Verlander is again.
The Astros introduced Wednesday that the 41-year-old right-hander has been reinstated from the injured listing. Fellow righty Seth Martinez was optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land in his place. Verlander will begin Wednesday’s house sport towards the visiting Pink Sox — his first look since June 9.
Verlander opened the season on the 15-day IL after some shoulder discomfort popped up throughout spring coaching and slowed his development via the exhibition season. He was activated on April 19 and made 10 begins earlier than heading again to the 15-day injured listing, this time with a neck difficulty that has stored him out longer than anticipated.
On the time of his placement on the IL, Verlander famous that he’d been coping with the problem for weeks however added he’d doubtless pitch via the problem if it was the postseason. Regardless of that confidence, Verlander wound up lacking greater than two months with the harm.
When wholesome, Verlander has been a stable however not dominant piece of the Houston rotation. He’s pitched 57 innings with a 3.95 earned run common, displaying a lower-than-usual 21.3% strikeout fee and an uncharacteristic susceptibility to house runs (1.74 HR/9). He has seen a slight bump in his homer-to-flyball ratio, however the bigger drawback is that he’s merely permitting extra flyballs than ever earlier than. This 12 months’s 57% flyball mark trounces each the profession 42% mark he carried into the season and final 12 months’s 44.8% mark.
Even when Verlander doesn’t recapture his Cy Younger kind this season, the present model of the right-hander continues to be loads useful for an Astros rotation that has been stretched skinny by a wave of accidents. Verlander’s strikeout fee is barely a couple of share level shy of common, and his command stays fairly robust (7.1% stroll fee). He was averaging simply over 5 2/3 innings per begin previous to his second IL placement of the season.
Verlander will step again right into a rotation that features Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco, deadline acquisition Yusei Kikuchi and rookie Spencer Arrighetti. The plan for Houston transferring ahead appears to be to undertake a six-man rotation. That may assist to mitigate issues relating to Verlander’s neck in addition to workload issues for Blanco, who’s already set a brand new career-high for innings pitched, and Arrighetti, who’ll doubtless set up a brand new career-high throughout his subsequent begin.
Rotation depth past the six presently wholesome starters in Houston is scarce. Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy underwent Tommy John surgical procedure earlier this season whereas J.P. France underwent shoulder surgical procedure. The ’Stros lately introduced that righty Luis Garcia won’t pitch this season. He’d been anticipated to return within the second half after present process his personal Tommy John process early within the 2023 marketing campaign, however didn’t recuperate as shortly as hoped. Lance McCullers Jr., who underwent flexor surgical procedure final summer season, was additionally anticipated to be a second-half reinforcement however is now equally considered as unlikely to return in 2024.
The prolonged size of Verlander’s stint on the injured listing has successfully eradicated the likelihood that he’ll be capable of set off the vesting participant choice in his contract. Had Verlander stayed wholesome sufficient to succeed in 140 innings this 12 months, he’d have triggered the fitting to select up a $35M participant choice for the 2025 season. The Astros would solely have been on the hook for half of that sum, with the Mets masking the opposite $17.5M as a part of the commerce that despatched Verlander from Queens to Houston final summer season.
Now, Verlander will merely change into a free agent at season’s finish. As long as he plans to proceed pitching — he’s beforehand stated he hopes to pitch into his mid-40s — there’ll doubtless be mutual curiosity in a reunion, nevertheless it received’t be as easy as Verlander choosing up that dear participant choice.
