SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Justin Verlander knows that his career is in its twilight, given his age and a series of injuries to his neck and arm. He’s also well aware that if he wants to achieve his longtime dream of winning 300 games, he needs to capitalize now.
The 42-year-old Verlander, who signed a one-year, $15 million contract with the San Francisco Giants in January, has been healthy and missing bats while ramping up his pitch count this spring training.
“This is a big year for me,” the veteran right-hander said in an interview inside the Giants’ clubhouse at Scottsdale Stadium.
Verlander is sitting on 262 wins. Can he reach 300? The mark has become as rare in baseball as condor sightings in California. Randy Johnson was the last to do it, ironically for the Giants on June 4, 2009, during the first game of a rainy doubleheader at Washington’s Nationals Park.
At 45, Johnson was the 24th pitcher and sixth left-hander to reach that vaunted plateau. He finished his career with 303, and everyone wondered at the time if there would be any others.
Behind Verlander there’s no one even close: Max Scherzer at 216, Clayton Kershaw at 212 and Gerrit Cole at 153. All appear beyond their prime years of production.
“I definitely think I can do it,” Verlander said. “I need a few [good] years. I need two extremely, extremely good years, three overall. Just give me two healthy years where I make 30-plus starts a year. If I make 30-plus starts for three more years it’s definitely possible.
“Based on how I feel right now, yes.”
Verlander retooled during the winter, which used to be a time to rest his arm. He had a sore muscle behind his right shoulder in 2023, delaying his debut for the New York Mets until May 4. That injury “was totally my own fault,” he said. Last year, after being traded back to the Houston Astros, he suffered an inflamed capsule in the same shoulder and didn’t make his first start until April 19. A neck injury then wiped out most of June and all of July.
This was after Verlander missed practically two seasons—2020 and 2021—with the Astros after Tommy John surgery, sandwiched between a pair of American League Cy Young Award-winning seasons when he notched 21 wins in 2019 and 18 more in 2022.
Last year was a lost season in Houston. He was 5-6 with a 5.48 ERA in only 17 starts and 90 1/3 innings. He knew this offseason something had to change. All the…