Mets' Justin Verlander man of the hour in his return to Houston
Astros manager Dusty Baker Jr., right, presents Mets pitcher Justin Verlander his 2022 World Series Championship ring before a game Monday in Houston. Credit: David J. Phillip
HOUSTON — On Tuesday, Justin Verlander will be the opposition, the enemy, the pitcher whose day the Astros and their fans will want to ruin. He’ll take the mound in Houston for the first time since leaving for a record contract with the Mets in December.
But on Monday, before his former team and current club met for the opener of a three-game series, he was the man of the hour.
The Astros celebrated Verlander’s return with a pregame ceremony that included a 100-second video featuring highlights from his more than five years with the organization, a standing ovation from the Minute Maid Park crowd and a meeting at home plate with Houston manager Dusty Baker, who presented Verlander his 2022 World Series championship ring (plus three hugs).
Those moments served as a sentimental bookend to the last-hour deal on Aug. 31, 2017, that sent him from Detroit to Houston.
“I obviously didn’t know what was ahead [at the time of that trade], but clearly it was an incredible run,” Verlander said Monday afternoon after spending an hour chatting on the field with Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Michael Brantley and others. “I look back so fondly at my time here. It was a wonderful chapter in my career and I’m very thankful for it.
“A lot of things stand out. Some of the moments with great teammates, great friends. The stuff on the field stands for itself. Everybody, the entire city, experienced those moments. But the behind-the-scenes, the guys I got to know and the relationships that I created, sharing it with those guys is what is most memorable.”
Professionally, Verlander’s Houston era was epic. It was a highly successful second chapter to what has become a virtually certain Hall of Fame career, revitalizing Verlander after what had been a so-so final few years with the Tigers. He won two World Series — the 2017 title, which later was tainted by the team’s sign-stealing scandal, plus the follow-up last year — and two AL Cy Young Awards, in his last full season before and first full season after Tommy John surgery in 2020. He also threw a no-hitter against the Blue Jays in 2019.
Personally, too, Verlander hit quite a few milestones while an Astro. He married his wife, noted model Kate Upton, in 2017, days after the World Series. They had their daughter, Genevieve, a year later. Last season, Verlander spoke frequently of the perspective — on life and baseball — afforded to him by becoming a father and enduring a major injury.
“A lot changed in my life while I was here,” he said. “Just a lot of maturity as a person, as a player. Just 34 to 40 — that age range, I feel like naturally in life that’s a new chapter in a lot of people’s stories. It certainly was for me.”
In the first season of a two-year, $86.7 million contract with the Mets, Verlander has underwhelmed, posting a 4.40 ERA and 1.22 WHIP after missing the first month-plus because of injury.
But the Mets like what he has brought to the team overall, with manager Buck Showalter noting his “sense of accomplishment and presence” and commitment to the craft that other pitchers can learn from.
“This is a proud moment for him,” Showalter said. “You would think he’d have a whole lot of great memories and feelings about his time in Houston. I know he talks fondly of it. The way he was treated and what they accomplished. Tonight it is a big night for him. It should be . . . I’m sure Houston fans will have a long memory of everything that Justin meant to this organization.”
Verlander said he tried to avoid glimpses of the Astros’ newer World Series ring, preferring to wait to see it in person.
His first ring, for what it is worth, is placed inconspicuously at his South Florida home.
“I kind of tuck everything away,” he said. “I’ve gotten, I guess at this point, quite a bit of hardware that is just sitting, waiting for its time to be displayed, which will be when I retire. So yeah, it’s at my house. It’s not in a box. I see it. But it’s not displayed as grandly as people would probably envision.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
