Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander has chosen free agency with many options ahead of him, but he revealed the New York Yankees aren’t up to par.
Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander has many tough choices to make amidst his free agency, but the New York Yankees, despite being the wealthiest team in MLB, don’t seem to be top contenders.
Verlander was a free agent coming into the 2022 season, so he got a taste of what teams were like while ultimately staying with the Astros for another season. From his experience, he’s revealed that the Yankees are ‘always a step behind.’
“Houston was at the top of the list…Some other teams really started to show a lot of interest,” Verlander told via ESPN. “I would say that the leader was probably Toronto. Ultimately, when it came down to it, Houston had the same offer. It was all kind of ballpark between them and Toronto, and New York (Yankees) was kind of always just a step behind.”
He only played one game in 2020 and sat out the entire 2021 season from Tommy John, so staying in Houston to get himself going again was a smart move. He had a beautiful 2022 season that could potentially earn him his third Cy Young, so he’ll likely have many teams going after him for a lot of money.
Unfortunately for the Yankees, they probably won’t get to put Verlander in their uniform.
Justin Verlander could end up anywhere, but he probably won’t end up with the Yankees
The Yankees, luckily, have quite a few good pitchers on the team and don’t have a burning need for Verlander. Though he’d positively impact any team he joins given his precise talent, they won’t be in major trouble if they can’t sign him.
New York sat behind the Astros in the regular season with the third-best ERA of the league (3.30), opponent batting average (.219), and WHIP (1.12).
Verlander, however, was on a completely different level of talent. It would’ve been nearly impossible to guess that he had played just one game over the past two years with an ERA of 1.75, batting average against .186 and WHIP of 0.83.
Even the best teams could find their rotation gets even better with Verlander, and it’ll be a matter of who can intrigue him the most. Clearly, the Yankees haven’t done a great job of that in the past.