Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer together again as older, wiser and better
Justin Verlander said it without saying it — talking about Max Scherzer the way you might talk about the cousin who got under your skin growing up. You know the one: Graduated from a fancy college, was a little too cocky for your tastes, might secretly be your grandma’s favorite.
“One of the things I admire the most about Max is his tenacity, his competitiveness,” Verlander said diplomatically at his introductory news conference at Citi Field on Tuesday.
Then, talking about their time together on the Tigers: “It was two young men trying to establish their foothold in the game...I think both of us are in a great place professionally [now] and know ourselves better and are mature men with families.”
Finally: “The one thing we’ve probably both learned – I know I have – is that healthy competition is great. How you kind of manage that is important because I think when you don’t communicate well, that can turn into unhealthy competition and you know, that’s not going to happen.”
(This time.)
Anyone who’s been part of a family rivalry knows what happens next. Hide the good plates and stemware, because this game of living room charades is about to get a little too intense. And frankly, that would be a pretty ideal outcome for the Mets and their fans.
There’s little doubt that Verlander and Scherzer aren’t the same guys who played together on the Tigers from 2010 to 2014 – an era when they “were not the best of buddies” but never disruptive, according to then-general manager Dave Dombrowski. But Verlander’s comments Tuesday demonstrated they haven’t gotten complete personality makeovers, either. They’re working out in the same Jupiter facility (though it doesn’t exactly sound like they’re having playdates), and there’s every expectation that their innate competitiveness will feed the beast that is this two-headed ace. They're even making the exact same amount next year - $43,333,333.
“I would expect the pool and ping pong games to maybe take on another level," Mets GM Billy Eppler said.
The pitching, too.
There’s often this prevailing belief that for a clubhouse to have chemistry, everyone has to like each other. But there are different types of chemistry, and for those who can harness it, there’s value in just really, really wanting to be better than the guy a few lockers over.
That wasn’t quite the relationship Scherzer had with Jacob deGrom – due to injuries, the two didn’t get to pitch together much and even when they did, deGrom often gave the impression of a man more intent on competing against his own best effort. Pairing Scherzer with Verlander is a different flavor profile altogether.
“I hope so,” Verlander said when asked if he intended to compete with Scherzer. “I hope we both ping pong off one another and take the ball every five or six days and just kind of go the whole year [where] we’re kind of having a great healthy competition. That’s ideal.”
And at 39 (Verlander) and 38 (Scherzer), it’s clear that they intend to reimagine the rivalry of old.
Dombrowski told Newsday last month that even in their youth, the duo “butted heads,” but that “it was never a bad butting.” Gerald Laird, who caught both, called them “drama queens” who would argue constantly. “I loved it because they pushed each other and pushed each other to the point where now you’re seeing two Hall of Famers,” he said.
Two Hall of Famers who also never got a chance to win a World Series together when they were on that stacked Tigers team, something Verlander still regrets. Two players who still are pitching at elite levels late into their careers, with Verlander coming off a Cy Young season. And two guys working on a deadline: Scherzer has one more year before he can decide to opt out. Verlander is signed for just two years with a third-year vested option.
“I think both of us – I know myself – would like nothing more [than] to see each other be amazingly successful and pull off a World Series championship with the Mets,” Verlander said. Scherzer "was quite young when he came to Detroit and so was I, but from what I recall, he hadn’t quite found his Hall of Fame self yet. He was really still turning into the pitcher that we all know him as now, and to see that transition . . . it's incredible to watch.”
It was an achingly polite assessment from one of the most competitive players in the game about another one of the most competitive players in the game. But, since Verlander is intent on being mature, here's the subtext spelled out for you: They're all grown up now and it's game on.
And hey, who knows, if all goes well, this could be the start of a beautiful frenemy-ship.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
