No one draws a crowd at Comerica Park quite like Justin Verlander. Fans fill the seats to watch him pitch, reporters swarm his locker to ask him questions. Verlander was in such high demand when the Astros came to Detroit last season that the team moved his media session to the dugout to accommodate all the cameras. A visitor in his old home, Verlander smiled and reminisced on good times. The ease in his voice was real. So was the hint of sorrow that seemed to come from a hole in his heart. Failing to win a World Series for Mike Ilitch, Verlander said, is “one of my biggest regrets.”
It’s fun to talk about what Verlander did over his 13 years in Detroit. But that conversation is undeniably stained by what didn’t do. It’s the coffee spill on his otherwise spotless resume. We see it, he sees it. He can say he sees it less after winning a ring in Houston, after ‘exorcising some of those demons,’ and you can choose to believe him. I don’t. And so the following afternoon, a couple of us found Verlander in the Astros’ clubhouse. He was between the dining area and the dressing room when we asked him if he had time for another question. Just one more, we swear.
Ever on his toes, Verlander asked us to tell him the question first. Then he’d decide if he could answer. Fair enough. It went something like this:
You’ll be a free agent after 2021. The Tigers should be competitive again. Can you envision a scenario where you finish your career here?
Verlander’s first reaction was to smile and laugh – that’s a long way off. Then he thought for a moment, as if maybe he’d thought about it before, and glanced around the room where guys like Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa were preparing for another game in pursuit of another championship. Verlander told us he couldn’t answer that question, not here, not now. It seemed like he wanted to say something he knew he shouldn’t.
All good, we said. We didn’t think he’d answer, anyway. Plus, Verlander had a point. We were asking about a scenario almost three years in the future. A lot can change in three years; a lot already has. Just look at Verlander. At the time, he was in the midst of another Cy Young season and talking about pitching until the age of 45. Now he’s rehabbing from Tommy John. He won’t be back on the mound until 2022, at the age of 39. Who knows if he’ll be the same.
Now come look at the Tigers. At the time, they were in the midst of another grueling season in a grueling rebuild. Their rehab is a little ahead that of Verlander. Detroit’s farm system is rich with young talent. Its top prospects are starting to arrive in the bigs. Its payroll is leaner than it’s been in years. None of this guarantees anything, but the Tigers have at least positioned themselves for long-term success. And on Friday, they hired A.J. Hinch.
Hinch and Verlander were the perfect match in Houston, a manager with a keen feel for analytics and a pitcher with a thirst for more information. The data-driven Astros gave Verlander the edge he never had in Detroit, and Verlander took his career to new heights. He racked up more strikeouts from 2018-19 than he has over any other two-year stretch in the majors. He ranked first among AL pitchers in WAR. He enjoyed a revival that probably wouldn’t have been possible with the Tigers.
“There are players who swear by (Hinch),” Al Avila said Friday during the manager’s introductory press conference. And Verlander is one of them.
“JV and I developed a great relationship,” said Hinch. “He’s an all-timer, a Hall of Famer, incredible competitor. We had some incredible experiences together.”
Come look again at the Tigers. Their analytics department has made serious strides since Verlander was traded in 2017. They’re not on the same level as the Astros, but the Tigers have caught up with baseball. They have the kind of tools to help their players improve, and now they have a manager who knows how to use them. Hinch believes he can ‘fast-forward’ the development already underway at the big-league level.
Now come look at Comerica Park. I can see it from the window of my apartment beyond the right field fence. It looks like it has for most of the past three years: empty and forlorn, like all those abandoned factories on the outskirts of the city. On his final day in town last spring, Verlander breezed through the Tigers’ lineup in a ballpark without a breath, before the sorrow crept back in his voice.
“It’s kind of sad,” he said afterward. “Most of my memories here, this ballpark was packed and fans were rowdy. This is obviously a bit different now, but that comes with winning. You put a winning product on the field and the fans show up.”
You can’t tell me Verlander doesn’t want to bring those fans back. You can’t tell me he doesn’t ponder his legacy in baseball and his legacy in Detroit and think about burnishing both. You can’t tell me doesn’t want to fill that hole in his heart.
“He sent me a message this morning raving about what Detroit is like when the team is winning,” said Hinch. “‘There’s no place like it,’ he said. It’s an incredible place with a loyal fanbase that wants baseball played the right way. They want baseball played a winning way.”
Winning baseball is on its way back. Maybe as soon as next season, surely by 2022. The Tigers’ rotation should be loaded by then, headlined by Mize, Skubal and Manning. But if we’re talking headliners, there’s only one who fits the bill. Justin Verlander came of age in front of these fans, then defied age with the help of Hinch. He can reunite with both in Detroit, and maybe the baseball gods will grant us the ending we desire.
And maybe Mr. Ilitch will be watching by their side.