Justin Verlander announced (via his Instagram page) that he will undergo Tommy John surgery. As per the normal timeline for TJ recovery, Verlander will miss the entire 2021 season.
The right-hander’s full statement…
After consulting with several of the best doctors, it has become clear that I need Tommy John surgery. I was hopeful that I would be able to return to competition in 2020, however, during my simulated game unfortunately the injury worsened. Obviously I’m extremely disappointed, but I will not let this slow down my aspirations for my career. I will approach this rehab the only way I know, attack and don’t look back. I’m confident that with a proper rehabilitation program and my unwavering commitment that this surgery will ultimately lengthen my career as opposed to shorten it. I can’t thank my teammates, coaches, the front office and my fans enough for the support they have given me so far in this process. I’m eager to get through this recovery and back on the field to continue to do what I love.
Verlander started the Astros’ first game of the season and then was placed on the injured list due to a forearm strain. After some initial speculation that the injury would be season-ending, there was hope that Verlander was nearing a return to Houston’s rotation before the end of the schedule, and that he would be available for the team in the playoffs. Unfortunately, it now seems like we won’t see Verlander back on a mound until Opening Day 2022 at the earliest.
Given that Verlander will be 39 years old at that point, there is at least a chance that we have already seen the last pitch of his Hall Of Fame career. There isn’t a long track record of pitchers rebounding after such a notable surgery at that advanced age, though on the plus side for Verlander, he has been the picture of durability over his career. Apart from a triceps strain that cost him two months of the 2015 season, Verlander has been virtually free of any major injury, so he could theoretically have a better chance at a full recovery and a return to form than most pitchers in their late 30’s.
Verlander has already done better than most in holding off Father Time, as he is coming off two of his best seasons. At ages 35 and 36 during the 2018-19 seasons, Verlander posted a cumulative 2.55 ERA, 12.2 K/9, and 7.47 K/BB rate over 437 innings for Houston, leading the league in both K/BB and WHIP in both years. After finishing second in AL Cy Young voting in 2018, Verlander edged out then-teammate Gerrit Cole to win the award in 2019, eight seasons after Verlander’s initial Cy Young Award triumph (as well as an AL MVP Award) with the Tigers in 2011.
The Astros signed Verlander to a two-year, $66MM extension prior to the 2019 season, and that deal certainly looked all the world like a sound investment in the wake of Verlander’s Cy Young year. However, both years of that contract have now been wiped out thanks to his forearm problem, and it is possible Verlander’s time in Houston could now be up.
It’s a major blow to an Astros team that already has $115MM committed to the 2021 season in the form of only four players — Verlander, Zack Greinke, Jose Altuve, and Alex Bregman. With George Springer, Michael Brantley, and Yuli Gurriel all scheduled for free agency this winter, GM James Click faces some significant financial decisions, and the Astros’ overall direction is now severely complicated with the knowledge that Verlander won’t be a factor in 2021. While Houston has gotten some nice contributions from younger arms like Jose Urquidy, Cristian Javier, and Framber Valdez, obviously the pitching staff is much deeper and stronger with Verlander teaming with Greinke at the top of the rotation.
karma for cheating
In before idiots think you can perform Tommy John before a ligament is torn. There is no preemptive surgery! It couldn’t have been performed earlier.
Well, they completely replace the ligament with another one from somewhere else in the body, so it kinda doesn’t matter if it’s completely torn or not when they’re just replacing the whole thing. 2020 strikes again
I think his point was that you don’t replace your transmission before you service it, you don’t replace a ligament before you rehab it, if its an option of course.
It basically wasn’t ready to be repaired until this last sim game where it tore enough to be eligible for surgery
Weird hill to die on lol.
Bummer. Get well soon.
That will leave a mark
Astros won’t get a pitch out of him on that contract extension.
They got 6 innings out of him. For 66 million….
Didn’t realize he pitched a game this year. So 1 inning is 11 million.
The season is 60 games, so right there his salary is limited to $12.22MM. 12.2+33= 45.2
I guess Garett Cole isn’t the highest paid pitcher in Baseball…
Same with joe Kelly when with Red Sox he knew about the cheating and now he’s a god in la
I hate to see this
He’s 37 years old. I imagine hes done. Great career though.
HOF career but in all likeliness its over. His age and it takes more than just 1 year to comeback. He has a family now so its time to retire.
Two years ago, everyone though Adam Wainwright was done for similar reasons, yet he’s still a quality starter.
The game he was hurt he was hitting 97 multiple times. He’s got plenty left in the tank.
yeah, it would ve great to see him come back. the way he’s played in years past he perhaps could keep going for some time
if there’s any pitcher that could come back from tj in there mid to late 30’s it’s verlander. do i ever see him being cu young winner he was no but i do see him coming back and being a solid #3 for few more years after tj
He will be 39 during his attempted comeback year. I would not call that “mid to late 30’s”.
Yea if anyone can come back from this and pitch into his 40’s, it’s this guy
The Astros are no longer an elite team. Their run is over.
Does he still get his salary next year in full amount?
Normally the answer would be yes, but who knows what economic turns covid will cause.
He will get his salary. But Astros get relief. They will get 50 to 75 percent back from insurance.
Thats assuming they took out a policy. They may not have since it was only a 2 year deal
Verlander is signed through 2021, so he will be a free agent returning from TJ surgery at age 39… I doubt there will be many takers. Maybe a very low 1 year deal with a team option… maybe from Detroit just so he retires as a Tiger?
Might make a solid closer.
There will be a lot of takers as long as he is looking a 1 year deal. I’m sure teams would pay 15 mil+ for a shot at a Hall of Famer for a year. If he lost it, then it is only a 1 year contract and doesn’t really hurt anyone. Doubt JV returns just to be a closer. Would be a slap in the face.
I think injuries like this are insured by the team. Like Jacoby with the Yankees.
Professional sports injury policies are custom-written. They tend to cover only part of the cost, and both the premiums and coverage take into consideration the specific factors that impact the likelihood of the pitcher being injured, such as age, position, and prior injury history. In Jacoby’s case, since he had a history of IL stints, it’s likely that his policy provided little coverage for partial seasons. For an aging pitcher, they would heavily weight the likelihood of a serious arm injury.
Jacoby’s policy covered approximately up to 70% of his salary except for the last year of his contract. There was no coverage there, hence the Yankees not paying him for ‘seeking treatment from a non-team approved provider’. If that year was insured, the Yankees wouldn’t have tried this tactic (which I assume they will either lose or settle for $0.80 on the dollar).
Insurance covers vast majority of it. But Astros will have to pay out some. And the Astros are basically done. With the FA’s they have leaving, not to mention that they have $110M already invested in some older players that are now becoming sub-par, I’d say they are going to have their run come to an end.
Their run of being a 100+ win team is over, yes, but I bet they could still be a playoff contender next year if they reinvest the money coming off the books into the right free agents and manage to stay reasonably healthy, Verlander aside.
Couldn’t happen to a better team and suck on that contract!
With that said – I’m not a big Verlander fan but you gotta respect him, like or not.
Here’s to coming back strong with another team.
I called it back when they first reported the injury everyone said I was crazy but being an angels fan I would know that when they say forearm it translates to TJS
TJ is certainly an injury that is very familiar to Angels fans.
enough of the cheating quotes…look at your team 1st before commenting .. roids are cheating too.
That’s an individual decision. The stros was cheating from an entire organization. And even with the cheating altuve did not deserve that mvp over judge. If he had any class he would return it.
If you had any class you wouldn’t suggest he return it.
werent the yankees too,in a different way but? I said it here so many frigging times..if you think the astros are the only team doing this or something similar,you’re sadly mistaken.
nO mY tEaM wAsNt DoInG AnYtHiNg LiKe ThAT.
Common sense says other teams were doing the same stuff. Just like PEDs and it not being only Yankees or Red Sox players using.
The trash can scheme was a team full of position players that had the choice to partake or not. Tony Kemp and Jose Altuve both chose to not participate.
It was not an “organizational” thing. It was a bunch of individuals making bad decisions.
Dan Zyms article on fangraphs seems to suggest Altuve was stealing signs. Like I have said before, the trashcan scheme seems like misdirection. Chances are buzzers were involved and most definitely they transmitted more info than just fb/breaking ball.
Altuve was one of the main people to do it. Stop trying to pretend he did not cheat. Nobody can do to him what Karma is doing to him now. He lost his hitting and injuries to go along with it.
Do you have ONE shred of evidence saying a buzzer was involved? That whole crap started from some random twitter account, who also said Torres had one, too
I love that Astro fans still try to justify it. And no no other team did it to the same extent.
Why did the Yankees sue to block the release of an internal email that would cause “irreversible reputational harm”?
Singing off key at choir practice??
There are articles from several media members who saw the letter and said there was no story. They were told not to release it so they don’t start a precedent but good try.
the rangers were rumored to have a bowl of white pills in the home clubhouse. that may not be such an indivisual choice.
Agree we even have people in the Hall of Fame that admittedly cheated sad
As a fan of baseball, the game was better with a healthy Verlander. As a Dodger fan, I still don’t wish for anyone to be injured but this feels a little like karma. So I’m not happy about this but also, I’m not exactly sad about it. Does that make sense?
Karma is a myth.
No ,karma is a stripper at flashdancers along with mystique and aura.
Haha! I hope that’s not where you’ve been spending your free time, Tom!
WOW!
I sincerely feel bad for JV, but this couldn’t happen to a nicer team.
I don’t care if you hate the Astros; JV is a great dude. One of my favorite players in the game, and I feel for the guy.
But, this is a huge hit to the Astros playoff hopes. Urquidy, Mcullers, Javier, and Valdez as your playoff rotation? Ouch.
The real question is: who signs JV at 38 y/o after TJS? And for what price?
Jv is a cheater.
What rule did JV break?
I believe Nolan Ryan once said that if they had MRI’s when he pitched, he and many other pitchers would have been recommended to have TJ. He just pitched through the pain until it was gone, without pitch count limits and pitching every 4th day. Eventually enough scar tissue would form and protect the elbow.
Reminds me of Smoltz to an extent, although he was 34 when he had TJ. Hopefully Verlander can get back and be competitive for a couple of years.
This is absolute horseshit
Which part?
They still had 5-man rotations for a large portion of Ryan’s career. Also, while it may be possible to pitch through a partially torn ligament, that only hinders performance while greatly increasing the chances of it developing into a full tear, at which point TJS is the only option.
He was on a 4-man rotation for at least the early part of his career.
He averaged 127 pitches a game at age 42 (1989) with a high of 164, five days after throwing 150. In 1974, he threw 235 in an outing, and pitched 6 scoreless innings his next start on three days rest.
Baby-ing pitchers these days has only lead to more arm troubles.
You know what baseball needs? JV to be signed by the Tigers in 2022 to a one year farewell deal to go out strong with his first team. Plus the Tigers will be decent by then.
with how many arms they have he might have to go to the pen. that said, JV as a closer could be a sight to see
Verlander coming back to be a lights out closer for a winning Detroit team? He’ll yea that would be awesome!
*bang* *bang* *buzz* *buzz*
dude that sucks
he will be 39 when he comes back. will he have a desire to continue to pitch?
The desire, or the ability, really. Recovery from surgeries gets longer and harder with age. He’s probably done, and after such a long and illustrious career, why go through the agony of trying stage a comeback?
After rehab, he’ll probably have an open showcase where he can prove he can still throw and command a fastball in the 90s. Then, some team will take a flier on him for one year and $5 – 10 million. Most likely it will be a low budget or re-building team who would not only welcome Verlander’s clubhouse presence but his ability to be a leader and show younger players star work ethic. If he’s great during the season, they can then flip him at the trade deadline for future assets.
So yeah, he’ll have ~$10 Million reasons to try and another opportunity to win a World Series with a team that wasn’t cheating. As long as his body lets him, those are reasons to try.
If he showcases well for teams in the Fall of 2021, he will get plenty of offers for an $8M – $10M base salary with incentives built in for him to earn up to $20M.
He also has $259M reasons not to try. These rehabs are tough on the body. I’ll bet if you had the long shot opportunity to increase your lifetime earnings by maybe as much as 4% and very possibly not at all, and it required beating yourself up for a year to have that chance, you might think it isn’t totally worth it. We will see what happens here but my bet is he retires and gets himself on the HoF ballot sooner rather than later.
Steve Nash, a Hall of Fame NBA point guard, gave a good perspective on this. He related that once you stop playing, you can never get “that” back. You have the rest of your life to do whatever you want to do but you can never get that phase of your life back.
I’m sure the days, weeks and months following Verlander’s surgery will be painful, but as long as the rest of his body holds up, I’m sure he’ll give himself every opportunity to make it back because the window for his playing days is small.. Also, his only World Series title is one that’s tainted. He was traded to the Astros mid-season and wasn’t a hitter, but it’s clear that title wasn’t earned by that organization. I could be wrong, but I’d suppose he would want a championship not surrounded by controversy.
So you’re saying he’d do it not just for a single long shot but a double long shot? I don’t find that reasoning to be very convincing. Well only the docs and the player knows, and none of them know yet. So we shall see.
Single vs double long shot? I don’t understand your reference.
Long shot #1: making a comeback in his late 30s.
Long shot #2: making that comeback on a championship team.
It wasn’t TJS, but Adam Wainwright came back from a consecutive injury-plagued years at age 37 and is still pitching well now at age 39.
Wow. Pretty old to have (and of course try and come back) from TJ. Will be interesting to watch, for sure.
that was a very thought out and motivating statement by Verlander. best of luck to him.
On Verlander, zero remorse, zero sincerity. That’s why he deserves the hate he gets. He may not have actively cheated, but of course he benefited from it, HE WON A TAINTED WS!
You think Houston is the only team that did that? Lol
Astros told on them self Yankees and Red Sox protected by commish Manfred with sealed documents protecting them.
Fans that throw stones hope you live in glass houses your team cheats too
And Arod cheated, so all Yankee’s benefited From his cheating they need to give back all awards too.
brobible.com/sports/article/justin-verlander-hypoc…
Bro Bible…..what’s next an article from herdiary about what his wife Kate Upton knew about the Astros cheating scandal?
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet man. Seriously people write stupid stuff all the time.
Forbes just published an article stating that speaking English may cause more corona cases.
Just cause someone writes something on the internet doesn’t mean you need to take it at face value.
Congratulations to JV on a certain Hall of Fame career even if he never pitches again. With that said, if anyone could come back to form at age 39 post-TJS it would be Verlander. Getting the surgery now actually helps his chances for coming back in 2022 as he’ll have close to 18 months to rehab from the surgery and rebuild his arm strength. I’m sure he’ll get plenty of FA offers for 2022 if he decides to come back.
no one from that astros team will ever get in.
Verlander is getting in, no doubt.
Verlander is most certainly getting in.
Verlander not getting in three HOF because he was an Astro? Dude, do you even realize how DUMB the junk your spewing sounds? JV was HOF worthy before he even signed with HOU chief, and as a pitcher there is NO WAY IN HELL that the hall would keep him out due to a “hitting scandal”. The guy was without question the best pitcher in baseball for a 4-6 year run (winning a Cy Young and an MVP as a pitcher) and even after that he was a top 5 starter for another 5 years. Verlander is a HOFer with or without throwing another pitch in MLB
Some have recovered in 9-10 months he could be back for the end of next season
I can’t think of a single pitcher who came back that fast after TJ surgery on their throwing arm.
Astros reign is over.
Womp womp
Thoughts and prayers
Whatever
Is there one example of a pitcher getting TJ this late? Should be interesting to see what he looks like when he comes back.
Waiting for the news that Mike Fiers gave back his WS ring and playoff money
Agreed. Super tired of people making him out to be some hero for going to the media.
Well I guess they go after Bauer although I prefer they get Lester.
Considering Bauer’s outspokenness, I highly doubt he would ever want to play for Houston.
It’s funny what money does to people though. And I’m sure he’d have an issue with half the teams in the league. Guy is crazy (but really good).
Rough news for Houston. Their rotation is going to need a big arm for 2021. Hopefully JV can return and pitch in 2022. Going to be an uphill battle considering his age.
And Kate Upton will nurse him back to health. More proof life’s not fair.
Hey, Justin, you’ll be 39 when the 2022 season begins and the Stros are on the hook for another $33 million in 2021. Ouch.
I like rangers29 comments. JV back to the Tigers for a couple years. That would be awesome!
Bring him back for a few years? He’s almost 100 and may never pitch again.
Choke on that contract, cheaters.
The Indians know a lot about choking.
I know the cheating scandal will forever hang over Houston, as it should. I can’t say that makes me feel good JV got hurt, though. Dude has been a special pitcher throughout his career, and I hope he can make it back to take the hill again.
Never going to happen
The universe is apparently settling the score against the Astros in a major way.
Verlander is a hall of famer by todays standards. He has multiple Cy Young Awards and a World Series ring (no matter how dubious the feat). He also has a super model wife at home and has made a ton of money (probably literally) so if this is it for Verlander i can’t imagine he has many complaints
Test
Why do old posts such as this one, sometimes show up on the front page? It’s July 2nd, 2023.