Justin Verlander Has Been Better Than The Numbers Suggest

The San Francisco Giants were linked to a number of top of the class names such as Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, or Walker Buehler this past offseason. However, they made a bit of an unexpected move when they signed Justin Verlander to a one-year deal going into his age-42 season.

Verlander is one of the greatest pitchers of all time, no questions asked. On the flip side, there were plenty of questions asked about whether he has anything left to provide in Major League Baseball. While he won a Cy Young as recently as 2022, the last few years for the future Hall of Famer have been rough.

The former 100 mph hurler had seen a significant decline in terms of his stuff and hadn’t been able to get strikeouts at the level he once could. While some people thought of it as a solid signing with the help he could receive from Oracle Park, the majority didn’t expect it to amount to anything.

Let’s take a look at the interesting season Justin Verlander has had after signing with the Giants.

Justin Verlander Has Found the Fountain of Youth

There were no doubts about how good of a career Verlander had put together going into to 2025. At the end of the day, he is a nine-time All-Star, three-time Cy Young winner, two-time World Series champion, and even has a Most Valuable Player to his name.

However, in recent years, Verlander has looked like a shell of the pitcher he once was. Part of that is to be expected as you near and eventually pass 40 years old. Just last year, he was arguably one of the worst pitchers in baseball. Due to injuries, he only threw 90.1 innings. Of all pitchers who threw at least 90 innings in 2024, Verlander had the seventh-worst ERA in baseball, at a 5.48.

This brought major concern to whether the veteran could still get meaningful outs at the big league level. The injuries offered a reason for some regression, but many raised questions about Verlander’s decline in stuff.

While some of his offspeed offerings have actually improved, Verlander’s fastball has seen its Stuff+ rating go from 123 in 2020 to just 90 this year. It currently holds a whiff percentage of 19.2% when, at on point, it held a 31.0% whiff rate.

This brings us to 2025. At a quick glance, fans would immediately think it’s been a rough year for the aging right-hander. He has a 4.29 ERA in 121.2 innings. He’s now striking out 8.43 guys per nine innings and is allowing north of three walks per nine, his highest clip since 2017.

Another storyline that fans were following was if he could get closer to that 300 career wins mark. He was most likely the last pitcher to have the chance to get there. However, it took all the way until late July for Verlander to secure his first win as a Giant, and he still only has three on the season.

This was yet another reason for fans to assume it’s been a rough year for Verlander. However, he’s put together some moments that could suggest that the 42-year old is having a better season than what’s on paper.

For one, he’s coming off of his best outing of the year. On Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles, Verlander threw 121 pitches and went five innings of shutout ball with 10 strikeouts.