SAN DIEGO — “Let me tell you,” Brent Strom says. “Justin is obsessed.”
And then Strom — the Diamondbacks pitching coach now, but Justin Verlander’s pitching coach with the Astros from 2017-21 — takes you into the world of the newest Met. Because the question that Strom is asked about a pitcher he arguably knows better than anyone is what kind of chance Verlander has to remain elite at ages 40 and 41 and perhaps 42.
Because those are the ages Verlander will pitch at now that the Mets have tied themselves to him with the two-year, $86.6 million contract — plus a third-year vesting option of another $35 million — he signed to replace Jacob deGrom as Max Scherzer’s co-ace.
Strom, speaking by phone, does not pretend that there is such a beast as the pitching sure thing, particularly at this age. Only that if you are going to bet on someone, it better be someone who already has cited his quest is to throw a baseball at the highest level as long as Tom Brady has done so and is doing the mental and physical work to make it conceivable.
“The two greatest compliments you can give Tom Brady, for example, apply to Justin Verlander, and that is an open mindset and competitiveness,” Strom said. “Those are the two most important qualities that any great athlete has to have. And I think Verlander has that in spades.”
As a Mets rookie in 1972, Strom was teammates with Jon Matlack, who stressed — regardless of how you feel — how important it was to throw a bullpen session the second day after pitching. The idea was to get the body moving again and still have two days until your next start. Matlack was the Tigers minor league pitching coordinator when Verlander was drafted and instilled the same philosophy, which endures.
Strom said even if the second day was an off day for the Astros, Verlander would come with his wife, Kate Upton, who would play in the outfield with their dog, Harley, while Verlander went to work.
“The only people in the [bleeping] stadium were sweeping the [bleeping] seats,” Strom said. “He didn’t come out in shorts and a T-shirt. He came out in his full uniform because that is how he would pitch and this was an important day to him.”
Strom hesitates a second and adds, “There’s a story that really blew me away. He was rehabbing [from Tommy John surgery in 2021] and he was down in Florida at our complex in West Palm in an extended spring game against the Nationals. And it was July and a 1 o’clock game and at 12:53 — seven minutes before the game — he stands at attention for a fake national anthem because that is how it is going to be in the actual game. Then he goes back and warms up again. The heat of Florida, the middle of the summer. Who does that?”
The obsessed do that. That is why Strom uses Verlander as an example to his young Diamondback pitchers. That is why if the Mets were determined to go to the top of the market for a starter this offseason, Verlander was the best bet.
Because none of it falls into the great bet category — not due to the violence necessary to throw a ball at this level. But, to me (and Strom agreed with this), if the choices were deGrom at five years, $185 million or Carlos Rodon for at least five years at a sizeable number or Verlander for two years at $86.6 million, Verlander is an easy choice if your owner will write the check. And this Mets owner will write the check.
Because, yeah, Verlander is going to pitch at 40 and had Tommy John surgery and missed most of 2020-21. But deGrom and Rodon also have Tommy John in their backgrounds and Strom actually thinks the two years of hardly pitching will now work to Verlander’s benefit. Plus, Verlander didn’t come back in 2022 as a wounded bird. He won his third AL Cy Young and second World Series at 39. After winning his second Cy in 2019 at 36. After winning his first title in 2017 at 34 after being traded to Houston from Detroit and adjusting his repertoire under Strom.
He has shown the capacity to adapt and learn more about his art, with the fixation to try to perhaps be the last 300-game winner ever (he is at 244 wins). He has motivation and a high IQ pitching brain.
“He’s remarkable,” said Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, against whose team Verlander was 5-1 this year with a 2.34 ERA and a .599 OPS against. “We’ve been waiting for him to age for years … and it hasn’t happened. I’m glad he’s moved on from our division.”
Verlander will join a fellow alpha in the rotation with Scherzer – the alpha enough of an issue that Scherzer’s MLB-record $43.33 million average annual value was kept by the Mets just north of Verlander’s $43.3 million. They weren’t known as buddies with the 2010-14 Tigers, but their last four years together Detroit won the AL Central each time, played in three ALCS and one World Series. At their best – even at their advanced pitching age – they will push each other for greatness; Scherzer, 38, arguably even more a pitching obsessive than Verlander.
Not every team should pair pitchers at this advanced age. But if you had a win-now mandate and no pitching coming from the farm and an owner willing to write the checks, Scherzer and now Verlander have the aptitude and attitude to make it a worthwhile gamble.
“He’s very attuned to his craft,” Strom said of Verlander. “He wants to be a legacy-type pitcher. So it drives him and he works.”
