Houston Astros Lose Justin Verlander To Tommy John Surgery; Pitcher Can’t Return Before 2022

Just when it looked like Justin Verlander was ready to resume his role as ace starter of the Houston Astros, injury intervened.

Verlander announced on Instagram Saturday that he will need Tommy John elbow surgery – a procedure that will keep him sidelined not only for this year’s playoffs but also for all of the 2021 campaign.

The 6’5″ right-hander, whose 226 wins lead all major-league pitchers, worked only one game this season before suffering a forearm strain. Last week, the team said it expected its No. 1 starter would return to the rotation for the final week and be available for the playoffs. That is no longer true.

“It has become clear that I need Tommy John surgery,” Verlander posted on Instagram. “I was hopeful I would be able to return to competition in 2020. However, during my simulated game unfortunately the injury worsened.

“I’m extremely disappointed but I will not let this slow down my aspirations for my career. I will approach this rehab the only way I know – attack and don’t look back.

“I’m confident that with a proper rehabilitation program and my unwavering commitment that this surgery will ultimately lengthen my career as opposed to shortening it.”

Verlander would be 39 if heeled in time for the 2022 campaign – and assuming there’s no work stoppage caused by the expiration of the Basic Agreement between labor and management after the 2021 campaign.

The elbow surgery, coupled with this year’s virus-shortened season, virtually eliminates any chance Verlander will win 300 games. He had been given a 54 per cent chance to reach that plateau in the annual stats-oriented Bill James Handbook, published prior to the 2020 pandemic.

The winner of two Cy Young Awards, Verlander has been relatively healthy over his long career, which began with the Detroit Tigers in 2005. He led his league in strikeouts five times and innings pitched four times, interrupted previously only by a 2015 triceps strain that cost him two months.

He came to Houston in a late-season 2017 trade, finished second in the Cy Young Award voting a year later, then won the trophy in 2019. He had previously won it in 2011, when he was also the American League MVP.

Verlander had been expected to team with Zack Greinke as a formidable 1-2 punch during the playoffs, which include eight teams from each league.

Now first-year Astros manager Dusty Baker, brought in to stabilize a team rocked by a sign-stealing scandal stemming from the 2017 World Series, will have to count on inexperienced young arms behind Greinke, who also owns a Cy Young Award, and fellow veteran right-hander Lance McCullers Jr., just returned from injury.

The Verlander injury is costly to the Astros in more ways than one. He’ll deliver just one win – from Opening Day of this season – for the two-year, $66 million contract extension he signed in 2019. Pro-rated because of the pandemic, the pact will still pay the pitcher $12,222,222, according to Spotrac.

If the usual 162-game schedule resumes next year, that salary reverts to $33,000,000 whether Verlander plays or not.

Houston entered play Saturday with a 25-26 record, seven games behind the front-running Oakland Athletics in the American League West with nine games left. The good news is that they’re three games ahead of third-place Seattle but the bad news is that they’ve dropped six of their last ten.

The Astros are committed to paying $115 million in 2021 to four players: Verlander, Greinke, former MVP Jose Altuve, and former All-Star Game MVP Alex Bregman.

A bigger headache, perhaps, is the pending free agency of mainstays George Springer, Michael Brantley, and Yuli Gurriel. The team would like to keep them all.

Houston’s string of three straight AL West titles, which also includes two pennants and a world championship, is definitely on life support. But the pandemic has pushed complaints over the cheating scandal to the back burner – even though it cost the jobs of three managers (A.J. Hinch, Alex Cora, and Carlos Beltran) and one general manager (Jeff Luhnow).

Now Astros fans have a new negative headline to worry about.