The Tigers Need More Than Nostalgia From Justin Verlander

Huge breaking news in Detroit on Tuesday: The Tigers came to a deal with a multi-time Cy Young winner universally beloved by fans. No, not Tarik Skubal, who's still due to become a free agent after this season. Nearly a decade since he was traded to the Astros, Justin Verlander will join the starting rotation as a 43-year-old on a one-year, $13 million contract.

With all due respect to Hal Newhouser and Mickey Lolich, I think Verlander is the greatest hurler in Tigers history. His first full season in 2006 coincided with the team's return to relevance after years as a laughingstock, as he won ROY honors while the team took the pennant in their first playoff appearance since 1987 (and first winning season since 1993). The dispassionate way to describe the ensuing years would be to say that Verlander established himself as a hard-throwing, ultra-competitive ace, hitting his peak in 2011 with an MVP-winning 24-5 season where he led the AL in ERA, innings, strikeouts, and WHIP. The more romantic way would be to tell you that Verlander starts were a weekly event that brought drama and stakes to long summer nights in Michigan. Verlander achieved two of his three career no-hitters as a Tiger, but just as important communally were the almost no-hitters, where he'd have a shutdown start going and word would travel around the state, every fan making sure she wasn't too far away from a TV or radio, just in case.

Verlander starts brought people together. By the same token, when the team flipped him for prospects in a year they'd eventually finish 64-98, it symbolized the beginning of a lot of folks' detachment from the franchise. In the years after, the once-loaded Tigers decayed into a collection of anonymous guys and a very old Miguel Cabrera. JV, meanwhile, was a stud for the Astros. He won the World Series in 2017, dominated the league in 2018 and 2019, got Tommy John, and then won another Cy Young as a 39-year-old in 2022. The next few campaigns followed the more expected decline for a player his age, but even though last season in San Francisco tagged him with a nasty 4-11 record, he finished the year well enough that he might still have something to contribute to an MLB club.