Pitching on back-to-back days at Comerica Park.
“It’s fun being here,” Verlander said.
This isn’t September 2014, the last time Verlander and Scherzer pitched back-to-back days for the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Nearly nine years ago, Verlander tossed eight innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts Sept. 24 in a 6-1 win over the Chicago White Sox in front of 36,810 fans, and Scherzer delivered six innings of two-run ball with nine strikeouts Sept. 25 in a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Twins in front of 33,077 fans.
“I’m excited to be back with Max,” Verlander said Tuesday in the visitor’s clubhouse at Comerica Park. “We kind of went our separate ways, and to come back together at this stage in our career has been such a blessing. We’ve had a lot of talks about pitching and baseball and reconnecting. It’s been great.”
THE GREAT YEARS: Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer still going strong, a stinging reminder of how good Tigers were
The Tigers welcomed the New York Mets, and their former star pitchers, to Detroit on Tuesday for the start of a three-game series, only for a bit of a delay: The Tigers and Mets postponed Tuesday’s game because of inclement weather.
Scherzer will start Game 2 of Wednesday’s doubleheader, and Verlander will start Thursday’s series finale. Scherzer, 38, is returning from a 10-game suspension after being ejected April 19 for violating MLB’s foreign substance policy.
“It’s out of my control, so I can’t get mad about it,” Scherzer said Tuesday, when asked about his suspension. “It all sucked. … I’m not going to go into the process because if you have a process, that’s cheating. I used rosin and sweat.”
Verlander, 40, is making his 2023 debut and returning from the injured list after missing the start of the season with a low-grade teres major strain. He pitched 4⅔ scoreless innings and threw 69 pitches for Double-A Binghamton on Friday in a rehab start.
“Funny how baseball works,” Verlander said of his injury. “Obviously, I wouldn’t like to start the year on the IL at all, but as baseball always tends to have some funny stories and connections, here I am, my first start as a Met in Detroit.”
LEGENDARY SEASON: Inside Justin Verlander’s 2011 MVP season & his thoughts on a reunion with Tigers
A DEFINING GAME: How Justin Verlander’s 2nd no-hitter ‘made people sit up in the buggy’ 10 years ago
There are so many memories of Verlander and Scherzer with the Tigers, both as individuals and as teammates. The dominant performances on the mound, the champagne-infused celebrations, the glory days.
Verlander, a nine-time All-Star and three-time Cy Young winner, won the 2006 American League Rookie of the Year, 2011 AL Cy Young and 2011 AL MVP with the Tigers from 2005-17; Scherzer, an eight-time All-Star and three-time Cy Young winner, won the 2013 AL Cy Young in his 2010-14 tenure with the Tigers. They were responsible for 265 wins and 3,454 strikeouts in their combined 18 seasons with the Tigers.
“It was a hell of a run,” Verlander said. “Mr. I (late owner Mike Ilitch) was doing anything he could to put an unbelievable product on the field. I mean, what a time to be not only a player for the Tigers’ organization but a fan. You said ‘the glory days.’ It felt like that as a player, too.”
In 2013 — the last season the Tigers won a playoff game — the Tigers had Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder, Torii Hunter and Victor Martinez in the lineup, plus Verlander, Scherzer, Doug Fister, Rick Porcello and Aníbal Sánchez in their rotation, plus Joaquin Benoit and Drew Smyly coming out of the bullpen.
From 2011-14, the Tigers won four consecutive AL Central titles. That run included three straight AL Championship Series (2011-13) and a World Series appearance (a sweep by the San Francisco Giants in 2012). The Tigers haven’t participated in the postseason since 2014, tied with the Los Angeles Angels for MLB’s longest active drought.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Verlander said. “Everybody kind of saw it coming as pieces started to be traded away.”
THE HALL’S CALL: Tigers icon Justin Verlander coy about Hall of Fame cap, but here’s why it’s not his decision
The Tigers failed to re-sign Scherzer after he turned down a six-year extension in spring training before the 2014 season. The contract negotiations in spring seemed intense, and both sides made public statements, but Scherzer chose to bet on himself. He ended up signing a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Washington Nationals in free agency.
Since then, Scherzer has a 2.72 ERA in more than 1,450 innings across nine seasons (2015-23).
“It was definitely tough,” Scherzer said. “You’re here, you want things to work out, but sometimes, a business situation doesn’t work out in your favor. That’s just the way it worked. I don’t need to rehash old stories about that. It was a decision. I made my decision, felt comfortable with it and knew what I wanted to do.”
The Tigers traded Verlander, whom they drafted No. 2 overall in 2004, to the Houston Astros on Aug. 31, 2017, in the final hour of the now-extinct waiver deadline, for three prospects: right-hander Franklin Pérez, outfielder Daz Cameron and catcher Jake Rogers.
Verlander waived his full no-trade clause.
It turned out to be a lopsided trade in favor of the Astros.
“I mean, I feel like I’m pretty similar, like pitching-wise, similar arsenal,” Verlander said. “I got more information as I left with analytics and obviously went from like zero to 100 going from Detroit to Houston at the time, back in ’17.”
Since the trade, Verlander has a 2.26 ERA in more than 650 innings across parts of five seasons from 2017-22. He missed the entire 2021 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, then posted 18 wins and a 1.75 ERA in his return en route to winning the 2022 AL Cy Young.
“It was very difficult,” Verlander said. “I think people very easily tend to forget that it’s not just a baseball decision. I had 12 or 13 years of my life invested in this city, in this town. This was my home. As a baseball decision, I thought it was very easy. The writing was on the wall, going from a team that was going in one direction to one that was going in a different (direction) and had World Series aspirations. That wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was uprooting my family.”
NEWSLETTER: Welcome back, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander
Two elite pitchers made tough decisions — albeit under different circumstances — to leave the Tigers, but it’s tough to argue with the calls. Verlander and Scherzer, standing the test of time and defying age limitations, have combined for four Cy Young awards and three World Series championships in their post-Detroit careers.
Now, they’re on the same team and will each receive $43.3 million for the 2023 season.
The combined $86.6 million for Verlander and Scherzer, roughly 25% of the Mets’ payroll, tops (narrowly) the combined salaries of the Tigers’ five highest-paid players: Cabrera ($32 million), Javier Báez ($22 million), Eduardo Rodriguez ($14 million), Matthew Boyd ($10 million) and Michael Lorenzen ($8.5 million).
“It’s inspiring,” said Boyd, a Verlander teammate in Detroit from 2015-17. “He had a huge impact on my career. I’m really grateful for him. You see what he did last year (coming back from elbow surgery), he adapted and dominated. Arguably one of the best years he ever had, and he did it in ways that also weren’t like some of the best years that he had. You can have success in multiple ways. I definitely want to pick his brain about it.”
The 2014 season — the last time Verlander and Scherzer pitched back-to-back days at Comerica Park — signifies the last time the Tigers won the AL Central, and more importantly, the last time the Tigers advanced to the postseason.
“A lot of great memories here,” Scherzer said. “The five years I was here were arguably the best five years in recent history for the Tigers, and to be a part of that run, it was awesome. This is where I developed. I really came into my own here. Huge five years of my career.”
Scherzer has been gone for longer than Verlander, but both have moved on.
“I don’t look at anything negatively, I just appreciate it for what it was and close that chapter and move on to the new one,” Verlander said. “That was like the first chapter of my baseball career. It was a long one. But it ended, and it ended peacefully, and I think both sides wish nothing but the best. What a great way to do it.”
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.