Durable Verlander should get ‘second’ look
HOW YOU are doing as the trade deadline approaches matters because teams want to see health and have a sense a player is peaking if they are going to surrender significant prospects. Justin Verlander had a 2.92 ERA in his two secondhalf starts heading into his outing Monday against the Royals. Talk about small sample sizes. Except if this continues, this would mark the fourth straight season Verlander was significantly better in the second half than first.
Sixty pitchers have thrown at least 200 second-half innings since 2014 and Verlander’s 2.80 ERA is sixth best and, among those who exclusively pitched for an AL team, only the 2.57 of Cleveland’s Corey Kluber is better. Among AL pitchers, only the .608 OPS against of Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco is lower than Verlander’s .619.
In addition, only David Price (314 2/3 ) has thrown more secondhalf innings in that time frame than Verlander’s 302 2/3 . Perhaps that would mitigate some of the concern about the durability of a 34year-old starter with nearly 2,500 regular-season innings on his arm.
His workhorse traits, ability to still find high highs and voluminous postseason experience (3.39 ERA in 16 starts) could make him ideal for the Dodgers, who can use the sturdiness/potential excellence even more with Clayton Kershaw out four-tosix weeks. In addition, the Dodgers are one of the few organizations that could potentially take on most if not all of the $56 million the righty is owed for 2018-19, and they might be willing to give up better prospects if Detroit were willing to take a con- tract like that of Scott Kazmir and/ or Hyun-jin Ryu back as some financial counterbalance.
The Cubs also are believed to be interested in Verlander as a piece to not only help defend their title now, but also assist in the near future with Jake Arrieta and John Lackey likely leaving as free agents after the 2017 season. Houston also is viewed as interested in Verlander.
But if the Tigers were willing to eat money to make a deal happen, it is possible a team such as Milwaukee, and others, could be interested.