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When Justin Verlander signed with the San Francisco Giants, the future Hall of Fame starter was sold on a simple vision.
Buster Posey wanted his team to pitch well, play sharp defense, and rack up enough timely hits to dominate inside its home ballpark.
A club that could carry out that mission would inch Verlander closer to the 300-win club, a milestone that’s out of reach for nearly every modern pitcher yet one that still appeared achievable for a 42-year-old just three seasons removed from his last Cy Young Award.
Verlander arrived at Oracle Park with 262 career wins and for the better part of four months, his teammates did everything in their power to keep that total the same. It’s not that the Giants tried to lose games Verlander started, but each time the right-hander took the mound, the club looked like the worst version of itself.
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When Verlander turned in quality starts, his bullpen betrayed him, his lineup got shut down, and he was rewarded with no-decisions and hard-luck losses. The right-hander wasn’t perfect – he had four first-half outings in which he failed to complete five innings – but the Giants never helped his cause.
Verlander became the first Giants pitcher to go winless in his first 12 starts in a season. In July, the streak hit 14 games. After the All-Star break, it was up to 16. Most major leaguers don’t get 17 chances to start games when they fail to win, but most major leaguers don’t have a resume that looks like Verlander’s.
Sure, he was walking batters at his highest clip in more than a decade. Yes, he spent a month on the injured list. And yes, his ERA hasn’t been below 4.00 since March. But at some point, the baseball gods were bound to reward a man who can still reach back and paint the outside corner with 97-mile per hour heat.
On a muggy July afternoon in Atlanta, Verlander finally broke through in a 9-3 victory over the Braves. Nearly six weeks later, Verlander is up to 265 career wins after back-to-back Ws on the Giants’ 5-1 homestand. The former Tigers and Astros star needed a season-high 121 pitches to get through five grueling innings on Sunday, but he earned the 15 outs required to qualify for a win in a 13-2 blowout of the Orioles.
Nothing has gone according to plan for Verlander, who thought he’d have about 10 more victories by this point when he signed a one-year, $15 million deal with Posey’s club. But as the season grinds toward the finish line, his outing at a sun-splashed Oracle Park on Sunday inspired a question that seemed off limits just weeks ago.
Should the Giants try to bring Verlander back next year?
The team’s midsummer collapse served as a reminder of the value of a pitcher’s durability. Landen Roupp is out for the season with a knee injury. Carson Whisenhunt was placed on the IL on Sunday with a back strain. Hayden Birdsong couldn’t throw strikes and was sent back to the minors. Kyle Harrison was traded. Mason Black’s minor-league ERA is hovering around 6.00.
All the young starters who were supposed to keep the Giants afloat are essentially out of the picture at the beginning of September. Then there’s Verlander, who will turn 43 in February and gutted through a marathon start on Sunday for a team that’s been out of the playoff race for a month.
For Verlander, returning to the Giants might not sound so appealing. For the Giants – whose pitching staff has been decimated in the last month – re-signing a starter who has kept the team competitive in most of his outings might be a better idea than anyone anticipated.