Justin Verlander returns to spring training with Detroit Tigers

(FOX 2) – And just like that, the Detroit Tigers have some of the best-known names in pitching readying up for the 2026 baseball season.

Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez headline the team’s bullpen after resolving arbitration with the former and agreeing to a 3-year, $115 million deal with the latter.

However, it’s the return of Justin Verlander that is making the latest waves. The 42-year-old Cy Young winner signed a 1-year, $13 million deal in his return to the Tigers.

Verlander spoke pubically for the first time Thursday morning down at spring training.

What they’re saying:

After being traded to the Houston Astros, Verlander doubted that he would return to the Tigers.

“When I left here, it was talked about a lot about okay ‘we’re going to be in a deep rebuilding process’ is something I talked about with Al Avila back then,” he said. “At that time when I left, I thought that there was a chance that I could come back and potentially help the team and the full-circle thing when they’re good again.

“But…as of a few years ago, it didn’t seem like that and especially after a couple years ago when I had the neck injury and you know, things were uncertain.” 

And despite being gone for years, returning to a team that still has players on the roster from his first stint with the Tigers doesn’t feel strange.

“That’s not something that we really think about,” he said, referring to catcher Jake Rogers. 

What is it about the Detroit connection?

When asked about separating the team from the city that he spent so much of his career in, Verlander used a familiar term to describe Detroit: a “kind of grit.”

“I was there through the turnaround, things were really starting to accelerate and change,” he said. 

He said the fans embraced them in 2006. 

“To buy a ticket and come to a ballgame was a huge expense for a lot of those fans. But it was also a getaway and something to celebrate and cheer for a city that was really struggling,” he said. “That really meant a lot to me.”

He was young during that era of baseball. Now, 20 years later, with two kids, a wife, and a lot more baseball experience, Verlander says he’s returned a different person. 

“To come back around and have another chance as a different man, to embrace the city I grew up in front of – people look at athletes and think they’ve got it all figured out – like I look back and I was 22 years old, 23, 24, early on, it’s like I was a kid and just trying to figure things out,” he said. “I’m in a different place and just excited to re-experience Detroit in a new mindset.”

The Source: An interview with Justin Verlander down at Tigers spring training was cited for this story. 

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