Future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander is returning to where it all began. The Detroit Tigers announced on Tuesday that they’d signed Verlander to a one-year deal. Verlander spent the first 13 seasons of his MLB career with Detroit, winning 183 games.

Verlander, who will be 43 on Opening Day, joins the Tigers after rebounding from an injury-plagued 2024 with a 3.85 ERA in 29 starts last year with the San Francisco Giants. It was the 16th time in his 20 MLB seasons that he threw at least 150 innings.

Although he hasn’t sustained his levels from 2022, when he posted an MLB-best 1.75 ERA and won his third Cy Young Award, Verlander can still be a key cog in a Tigers’ rotation that is led by two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal and free-agent addition Framber Valdez. He could also become a trade deadline target for another team seeking a boost down the stretch and into the playoffs. Verlander has a 3.58 ERA across 38 games (37 starts) in the postseason.

Verlander spent 2025 with the Giants, who signed him to a one-year, $15 million pact last winter. He stumbled through the first half, posting a 4.70 ERA over 15 starts, and a pectoral strain kept him out of the rotation for nearly a month. But he bounced back after the All-Star break, ranking 12th in ERA (2.99) among pitchers with at least 65 innings in the second half.

He ended the year with 137 strikeouts, bringing him within 148 of tying Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven for sixth-most strikeouts (3,701) in a career. Verlander currently ranks eighth.

Verlander is 34 wins shy of joining the 24 other MLB pitchers who have racked up 300 victories. No one has matched the mark since Randy Johnson reached 300 on June 4, 2009. Johnson, then 45, added three more wins before closing out his 22-year Hall of Fame career at the end of that season.

Verlander will need to pitch at least two more full seasons to reach 300 career wins, but the nine-time All-Star and two-time World Series champion won’t need to accomplish that feat to remain on track for the Hall of Fame. He’s expected to get through on his first ballot, perhaps now with an English “D” on his cap.

“I don’t think it’s out of the question,” Verlander said in late September of winning his 300th game. “… If I can make 29, 30-plus starts (in a season) and give our team a chance to win for a few more years, then it’s possible. I’m not gonna say it’s not. It’s definitely harder, though, you know? If you make 29 starts, you’d like to win 10 to 15 games.”

Verlander enters 2026 leading all active pitchers in career wins (266), innings (3567 2/3), bWAR (82.2) and strikeouts (3,553). He also ranks eighth among active pitchers in career ERA (3.32).

This year will mark Verlander’s 21st season pitching in the major leagues since debuting with the Detroit Tigers in 2005. He did not play in 2021 while recovering from Tommy John surgery and only made one start in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign. Although he avoided the injured list upon his return in 2022 and subsequently won his third Cy Young Award, he has spent time on the injured list each of the last three seasons, including two months for a neck strain in 2024.

“Maybe this year was meant to be for health and refining myself and getting used to taking the ball every five or six days and being able to log some innings,” he said after his last start of 2025. “Maybe that’ll carry me where I need to go.”