USA TODAY International Edition
REINVENTED VERLANDER DREAMS BIG
Tigers star pitcher would love to lead team on playoff run
He is guaranteed to earn more than $ 250 million by 2019, is engaged to a supermodel, is the envy of every car enthusiast and will spend the winter frolicking among the rich and famous in Beverly Hills.
Still, it’s not nearly enough for Justin Verlander, ace of the Detroit Tigers.
Verlander has preapproval to purchase and design his own Ford GT, the new carbon- fiber body with the 600- plus horsepower engine. The cost? A cool $ 400,000. He considers Kate Upton, the 24- year- old model with the global profile, his true better half, noting how well they complement each other and find the ability to relate through their unusual vocations.
Yet it is on the mound where Verlander retains the burning passion and desire to be the best, acclaimed while leading the Tigers to the playoffs in October. Once again. “That’s what separates him,” Tigers general manager Al Avila tells USA TODAY Sports. “He’s got so much pride, he’s not going to sit back and be mediocre. He could go out there with the stuff he had before, survive the rest of his contract and be OK. He could be a No. 4 starter, maybe even a No. 3.
“But that’s not what he wants. He wants to be the top dog. That’s what makes him so great.”
Verlander, a year after being written off after losing the zip on his 100- mph fastball, struggling with injuries and going 5- 8, has quietly returned to being one of the game’s top pitchers.
Verlander ( 14- 8 after Sunday’s 3- 1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles) is in the Cy Young Award conversation. He has pitched an American League- high 200 innings and is among league leaders with a 1.03 WHIP ( walks plus hits allowed per inning pitched). He is getting more swings- and- misses with his 93- to 97- mph fastball than he ever did when he was hitting 100, averaging 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
“He’s just unbelievable what he’s doing out there,” Tigers teammate Anibal Sanchez says. “I’ve never pitched 200 innings in my life, and he does it year after year and is even getting better. When his career is over, you’re going to be talking about one of the greatest pitchers who ever pitched in his generation.”
Verlander has more wins ( 171) than any other pitcher in the last 10 years. He has pitched at least 200 innings in nine of the last 10 seasons. And he’s doing it in the AL, where lineups are relentless.
“That’s what gets your attention,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter says, “doing it in this league. It’s remarkable when you see a guy like Verlander, his consistency of success, facing the best hitters in the world. There are a couple of places you can coast pitching in the National League. You can’t do it over here.”
Sunday’s result didn’t stop the crowd of 33,069 from constantly peeking behind the Tigers dugout.
“Who’s pitching today?” a Tigers fan, ordering a beer outside Section 117, asks a bartender. “Verlander,” he is told. “Oh, that is totally awesome,” the fan says. “Now, I get to see Kate Upton. She’s at all of the games he pitches.”
Ah, life in the celebrity world. Verlander can’t believe some of the stars he has met with Upton but, then again, is more in shock that these same Hollywood actors and actresses can recite details of his 2011 MVP and Cy Young Award- winning season.
“Just having the opportunity to meet some of these people who are in a different world, you’ve got to pinch yourself sometimes,” Verlander tells USA TODAY Sports. “But you’d be surprised to see how many of these same people are sports fans, and there’s that mutual respect, which is pretty cool.”
Still, Verlander says, there’s nothing like the respect of your peers, especially when everything looked so bleak, as he was unable to throw a single pitch without pain two years ago.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Verlander says quietly, “I was worried.” The Tigers shared his fear. “I thought there was a chance we wouldn’t see that guy again,” manager Brad Ausmus says. “But that being said, with four good pitches, I thought he could still be a very good pitcher and be better than what he was showing.
“I basically just told him, ‘ You’ve got to pitch differently. You’re not going to throw 97 any- more.’ Well, he’s proven me wrong. He’s still throwing 97, but he is a different pitcher.”
Verlander, who has changed his arm slot, was routinely hitting 97 on the radar gun Sunday. He throws his slider 2 to 4 mph faster, with much more life up in the strike zone.
“Really, when all that happened,” he says, “it just gave me all of the more incentive to figure it out.”
The downfall began in 2014 when he had core muscle repair surgery in January. He never felt right that season, going 15- 12 with a 4.54 ERA, yielding the most earned runs in the AL. Still, he pitched 206 innings.
“That meant so much to us,” Tigers two- time MVP Miguel Cabrera says. “We know he wasn’t feeling right. He was hurting. But he never let anybody know. He just kept pitching and competing to be out there for us.”
Verlander figured he’d bounce right back in 2015, only to injure his triceps in his final start of the spring. He missed nine weeks and when he returned hardly resembled the same guy. The velocity dropped. Whispers permeated. Verlander’s career was on fumes.
“I’ve never done anything to shove it in anybody’s face,” Verlander says. “That’s not me. I work hard, because it’s me wanting to be good, and I’m not going to let any naysayers get in the way of that.”
In the final two months of last season, Verlander started overpowering hitters again. He yielded a 0.31 ERA in a four- game stretch last August, the finest stretch of his career.
It opened the eyes of Avila and Tigers owner Mike Ilitch. Even after trading David Price and slugger Yoenis Cespedes at the deadline, Verlander’s resurgence brought renewed hope. Maybe the window wasn’t closing.
“That was the whole thing,” Avila says. “If he wasn’t pitching like he was towards the end of the year, you’re thinking, ‘ OK, what have we got? We have to rebuild the whole rotation.’ But the way he was pitching, it was like he could be the No. 1 guy he was before.
“He was the reason we made the moves we did.”
The Tigers signed free agent starter Jordan Zimmermann to a five- year, $ 110 million contract. They signed slugger Justin Upton to a six- year, $ 132.75 million deal. They remade their bullpen.
And here they are, 76- 66 and two games behind the AL wildcard- leading Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays.
“It would mean so much to me if we made the playoffs, especially for me personally, how much I’ve worked,” Verlander says.
That would put a little more glitter and glamour on that Hollywood couple, where TMZ and the paparazzi are only a camera lens away every time Verlander and Upton, who have not set a wedding date, hit the town.
“It’s a different world,” Verlander says. “I had my eyes open to that when we first started dating. But in L. A. when you go out and leave a place, there are flashes everywhere with the paparazzi. There really is no privacy. But I’m happy. I’m really happy.
“I’m in a good place, on and off the field.”
The biggest adjustment from Michigan to the Hollywood life?
“You have to dress nice, man,” says Verlander, laughing. “You just never know who’s out there watching you.”
These days, Verlander’s definitely worth watching again.