It was reported early Monday afternoon that free agent pitcher Justin Verlander had signed a two-year 86-million-dollar deal with the New York Mets.
Last week the Mets saw their two-time Cy Young award winner Jacob DeGrom sign a five-year deal with the Texas Rangers and the Mets had to go out and make a move for a starting pitcher.
Verlander will turn 40 next season, but he is pitching like he is 25 again. He had Tommy John surgery in 2020 and came back to pitch in 2022, and man, did he have a great season. He brought home his thrid-Cy Young Award and won his second World Series with the Houston Astros.
Being an elite pitcher at 40 is very hard, but if anyone can do it, it’s Verlander. I don’t see him slowing down in the next two years, and the Mets are getting one of the best pitchers on the planet.
The Mets Needed To Make A Huge Splash
When DeGrom signed with the Rangers last Friday, Mets fans felt this could be the end. We all witnessed the Mets 2022 division collapse and then lost in the wild-card round in three games to the San Diego Padres. So, the Mets went from being the second-best team in the N.L., having a bye, to being out of the postseason in the first weekend, and then their star pitcher left in free agency.
The Mets needed to do something, and they went out and got Verlander. The move for Verlander could turn out to be better than signing DeGrom. DeGrom has missed a handful of games the last two seasons, and he has hardly been on the mound to pitch. DeGrom is about five years younger than Verlander, but Verlander showed he could bounce back from major surgery at age 39 and be the best pitcher in baseball.
Verlander will be reunited with his former teammate and pitching buddy Max Scherzer, another three-time C.Y. Young Award winner. They spent five seasons together in Detroit from 2010-2014; they were a dynamic duo.
Scherzer will be 39 next season, so the pitching staff features two guys who shouldn’t even be pitching at an elite level or even pitching at all, being so dominant that the Mets should not worry about them slowing down.
N.L. East
The Mets are in a competitive N.L. East and we have seen them back-to-back years choke the division away and not even make it to the NLDS.
The Atlanta Braves won the 2021 World Series and won the N.L. East again in 2022, and they will still be a great team.
The Philadelphia Phillies finished third in the N.L. East, in 2022, went all the way to the World Series and lost in six games.
The division is challenging enough, and now Verlander should be able to be that ace that can shut down the extraordinary offenses from the Braves and Phillies and the rest of the N.L.
