Justin Verlander jumps Mets' sinking ship for Astros' playoff hunt
Justin Verlander of the Astros looks on before a game against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
On Sunday, Justin Verlander was at Citi Field, standing in front of his Mets locker, fresh off career victory No. 250, fielding questions that he really couldn’t answer regarding his future in Flushing and the direction of the franchise.
We got to resume that same conversation Thursday. Only this time Verlander was seated in a Yankee Stadium conference room. Wearing an Astros’ cap and T-shirt.
A lot had changed over the past four days, other than his New York address. Verlander returned to his Manhattan apartment after a short stay in Kansas City with the Mets -- his trade to the Astros became official a few hours before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. deadline. He’ll take the mound Saturday in the Bronx for the second time in two weeks, but for the Houston team Verlander pitched to a championship last October.
Asked to describe the stunning turn of events, from being a preseason World Series favorite to the collapse and breakup of the $377 million Mets to going back to the defending champs, Verlander flashed a puzzled smile.
“Good question,” Verlander said. “I haven’t really come to terms with it. I don’t think anybody saw this coming. You commit to a team and you commit to trying to win a championship there -- that’s your vision, right? You’re all in. And then a few months later, you’re back with the team you were with last season. I feel like I was just really starting to get settled in the city, and my apartment, and my family was really getting used to things here.”
And yet, Verlander still jumped at the opportunity to leave, once the Mets’ season went in the dumpster and owner Steve Cohen gave him a Get-Out-Of-Jail free card to flee the “re-purposing” already underway in Flushing. Once the Mets traded his fellow $43 million co-ace Max Scherzer last Friday, Verlander seemed to be leaning toward the door, and a chat with Cohen and general manager Billy Eppler after Sunday’s start convinced him to waive his no-trade clause.
“Just the vision of how the rest of this year was going and next season had shifted a bit,” Verlander said. “They’re more focused on a couple years, ’25-’26. It would be great to hear if I was a Met for longer term. But with only signing a guaranteed two years, it changes things. It’s a tough conversation, especially with Steve.’
Verlander hurt the Mets by missing the first month, disastrously landing on the IL with a shoulder strain the morning of Opening Day, but he also helped Eppler facilitate a trade by going 4-1 with a 1.49 ERA over his last seven starts. Of course, Verlander isn’t an Astro unless Cohen agreed to pay as much as $53 million of the potential $93 million left on his existing deal (if his ’25 option vests). Just as Cohen’s money got him to the Mets by giving Verlander a record salary that matched Max Scherzer, it also helped ship the three-time Cy Young winner to Houston.
For that, Verlander sounded grateful, despite the “whirlwind” few days that upended his family for the remainder of this season. And unlike Scherzer, who went more scorched earth in his re-telling of his conversation with the front office, Verlander was slightly more bullish on what Cohen has in store for the Mets next season.
“I think you look at it from their perspective,” Verlander said. “Clearly, their plan in the short term was to bolster their minor-league organization with prospects. The direction I was told for next year was it wasn’t going to be the exact same M.O. as this season, which was to fill every gap that you need with a free agent. That didn’t quite work out, so why double-down on that strategy?
“But I think if I was looking at it through their lens, you look at the players they have earmarked for next season. Edwin Diaz coming back and the same core you had going into this year. I don’t see why they wouldn’t think that they would be competitive.”
That question continues to hang over Cohen and the Mets in the wake of the Verlander/Scherzer deals, and it’s to be a while before we get anything resembling an answer. Cohen pledged during Wednesday’s Kansas City visit that he wouldn’t put an “embarrassing” team on the field, which means he better make some significant upgrades from the squad that just got swept by the pathetic Royals.
Those Mets aren’t Verlander’s problem anymore. He’s still chasing a World Series, just wearing a different blue-and-orange outfit. As for what went wrong during the Queens blip in his Cooperstown career, Verlander says he’s at a loss to explain it.
“We kind of got off on the wrong foot,” Verlander said. “Everything that could go wrong did early on. And even though we started playing some good baseball at times, we never really hit our stride where we were banging on all cylinders. I can’t answer exactly why that is.”
Verlander is probably relieved that Thursday was the last time he’ll be asked about it. And the Mets will be in his rear-view mirror, if not the city quite yet.
“Well, he’ll get out of New York soon,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
