Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander signed on Wednesday with the New York Mets for the next two seasons and $86.7 million, plus a $35 million option for a third year.
The deal for the 39-year-old pitcher was made official today by the Mets, whose general manager, Billy Eppler, was pleased to be able to add Verlander to lead New York’s starting staff.
“We are extremely excited to add Justin, an accomplished pitcher like him, to the front of the rotation,” Eppler said.
By reaching this deal with the Mets, Verlander shows that his decision to opt out of the $25 million option that would keep him attached to the Houston Astros for next season was the right one.
Verlander’s arrival follows the signing of Jacob deGrom, who had been his main pitcher in recent seasons, with the Texas Rangers.
With deGrom gone and Chris Bassitt, who was a key player in the starting rotation, still on the market, the Mets needed to add a quality arm.
With this agreement, Verlander will meet in New York with Max Scherzer, with whom he shared the stage, when they were teammates with the Detroit Tigers.
Verlander, owner of a powerful fastball that can reach 100 miles per hour, is coming off winning his second World Series with the Astros, whom he led by achieving the league lead in wins (18-4) and ERA (1.75). American.
This performance led him to win the third Cy Young Award of his career, as the best pitcher of the minor circuits and he was chosen as part of the starting rotation of the All-MLB 2022 first team.
With the 175 episodes he worked in the MLB regular series, Verlander proved to be fully recovered from the Tommy John operation (to replace the tendon in his pitching elbow), which he underwent and forced him to miss the entire season. 2021, winning the 2022 American League Comeback Player of the Year award.
