MLB Trade Rumors<\/a> doesn\u2019t see the Astros being major spenders in the Top 50. The site ranked each of the Top 50 players, connected them to teams and projected their salaries. Of the site\u2019s four analysts, the Astros were only connected to three players. One was an old friend, right-hander Justin Verlander. In fact, two of MLBTR\u2019s analysts believe he\u2019ll land back in Houston. <\/p>\n![\"San]( "\\"San")
<\/p>\n
San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Justin Verlander (35) during the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oracle Park. \/ Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Verlander turns 43 years old in February. MLBTR acknowledged that in projecting that Verlander would get a one-year deal worth $22 million, which is the same value as this year\u2019s qualifying offers for free agents. He was also linked to the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants, who he played for in 2025. <\/p>\n
He looked done when he left Houston after the 2024 season. His injury-riddled season saw him go 5-6 with a 5.48 ERA. The three-time Cy Young winner and two-time World Series winner didn\u2019t want to go out like that, so he signed a one-year deal worth $15 million with the Giants. On the surface, things didn\u2019t get much better. He avoided injury, but he went 4-11 with a 3.85 ERA in 29 games, with 137 strikeouts and 52 walks in 152 innings. <\/p>\n
The Giants weren\u2019t expecting an ace. They didn\u2019t get one. But, Verlander did give them value, especially later in the season. In his last 15 games, he went 4-5 with a 2.99 ERA with 77 strikeouts and 26 walks in 81.1 innings. He was even better in his final seven starts, as he went 3-1 with a 1.96 ERA in 41.1 innings, with 38 strikeouts and 15 walks. <\/p>\n
Unlike 2024, where Verlander\u2019s performance looked bleak, his work in the second half of his season leads one to believe he could build on that in 2026. He\u2019s highly motivated to reach 300 wins and still needs 34 victories. He also averaged more than five innings per start, so he didn\u2019t leave his bullpen too exposed last season. <\/p>\n
Fit may not be the issue one thinks it might be. Houston parted ways with Luis Garcia and Valdez is likely to sign elsewhere. Three other starters will be on the IL to start 2026 due to Tommy John surgery. Past Hunter Brown, a Cy Young finalist, along with the returning Spencer Arrighetti and Cristian Javier, the Astros could use depth. <\/p>\n
Houston doesn\u2019t like to drop long-term deals. They prefer shorter deals with higher average values. Verlander knows he isn\u2019t getting long-term deals anymore and knows the franchise. This is one short-term marriage that would be good for both parties. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"November is the start of baseball\u2019s hot stove league. Some call it talking season. Others call it speculating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-272900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}