Giants Veteran Pitcher Has One of MLB's Most Optimized Arsenals

The San Francisco Giants needed some help in their starting rotation this offseason even before ace Blake Snell decided to opt out of his contract and sign a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency.

They were connected at one point to Corbin Burnes in free agency, but he opted to sign a deal with their National League West rivals, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Still in need of some help in the rotation, the Giants decided to take a shot on future Hall of Famer, Justin Verlander.

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San Francisco knew it was a risk since he was going to be 42 years old once Opening Day rolled around. He was also coming off the least productive season of his career in 2024, battling an injury that lowered his effectiveness on the mound.

The results have not been great, with Verlander still seeking his first victory of the campaign.

He spent a month on the injured list already and has a 4.45 ERA across 56.2 innings with 47 strikeouts.

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It is far from ideal that Verlander is walking more batters than he has in 17 years and his strikeout rate is near career-low levels, too.

Alas, at this stage of his career, the veteran righty is getting as much as he can out of the arsenal he possesses.

As shared by Neil Paine of ESPN, Verlander has one of the best Nash Scores of qualified starting pitchers in baseball in 2025.

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He created the formula to measure whether or not pitchers were maximizing their repertoire.

There are some pitchers who rely heavily on an ineffective pitch and could see better results with an adjustment to their sequencing. 

On the other end of the spectrum, there are hurlers who have it figured out with their pitch mix being on point and their effectiveness not being changed if they use one offering more than another.

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That could be seen as a bad omen for Verlander, who has a Nash Score of 0.39 using the three-year sample size, which is the 12th best mark amongst qualified starters.

Even getting the most out of his repertoire isn’t yielding the best results on the mound.

With his fastball velocity dropping and losing effectiveness, Verlander might see a slight uptick throwing it a little less, relying more on his off-speed and breaking pitches that have become easier to hit with his fastball not being as dominant.

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