LAKELAND, Fla. \u2014 Soon after Justin Verlander arrived at the TigerTown complex this week, the ace of the team\u2019s current generation asked a question.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey,\u201d Tarik Skubal said, \u201cdo you need a tour?\u201d<\/p>\n
Skubal, it turns out, made the comment as a joke. The Tigers drafted Verlander in 2004. He pitched for 13 seasons with an Olde English D on his cap. He long spent his offseasons right here in Lakeland, Fla., so Skubal figured he knew the terrain.<\/p>\n
But like so much else, the Tigers\u2019 facilities have changed since Verlander departed in 2017. Soon, Skubal was leading Verlander through doors and down hallways. The training room here. The best way to the fields there. Eventually, they turned outside the clubhouse. There on the wall, a picture of Verlander stared at them.<\/p>\n
Strange, perhaps, to see your old self lingering in a place you left long ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey,\u201d Skubal said, \u201cthis is you!\u201d<\/p>\n
All that time, all that change, all that perspective lived at the heart of Verlander\u2019s Thursday morning press conference in the 34 Club at Joker Marchant Stadium.<\/p>\n
Perched on a chair, with a microphone in hand, Verlander spent nearly 30 minutes looking back on all that has shaped him and how it led him back to where his career began.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got two kids, I\u2019ve been married for a while now, and I\u2019m just a different person,\u201d Verlander said. \u201cTo come back around and have another chance as a different man to embrace the city that I grew up in front of \u2026 People look at athletes and think that they\u2019ve got it all figured out. I look back, I was 22 years old, 23, 24, early on. I was a kid and trying to figure things out. I happened to be really good at baseball. But now it\u2019s just such a different experience, and I\u2019m in a different place and just excited to re-experience Detroit in a new mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seated with his fellow rotation mates on a plastic chair behind a row of cameras, Skubal looked on with a childlike twinkle in his eye. He and Verlander have become inextricably linked, two Tigers aces who have captivated crowds, each won Cy Young Awards and dominated like few in this franchise ever have.<\/p>\n
Now, at the dawn of a season with the highest expectations, they\u2019re together on the same pitching staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you would have told me 10 years ago,\u201d Skubal said, \u201cthat I\u2019m going to be lockermates with Justin Verlander and we\u2019re gonna be in the same rotation, I would have called you f\u2014\u2019 crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the 2025 season neared its end and Verlander\u2019s San Francisco Giants fell from competition, the future Hall of Fame pitcher confronted increasingly common moments of introspection.<\/p>\n
After a season in San Francisco, he concluded he did not want to spend his final years as a mercenary, bouncing from team to team, taking paychecks and chasing wins where he could find them. He realized he wanted to play somewhere that would hold meaning. That meant either the Houston Astros or Detroit, the two franchises where he crafted his most formative and most memorable triumphs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sitting there thinking about where I wanted to be,\u201d Verlander said, \u201cand Detroit just kept coming to my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the outset of the offseason, Verlander said he reached out to Tigers manager A.J. Hinch and president of baseball operations Scott Harris to express his interest. He got the impression the Tigers would not have room for him. But offseasons are long, and circumstances change. After learning Reese Olson would need surgery on his right shoulder, the club signed Framber Valdez to a three-year, $115 million deal. They furthered their commitment to pitching by giving Verlander a one-year, $13 million contract, with $11 million of that money deferred until 2030.<\/p>\n
Many Tigers players were caught off guard as they scrolled their phones Tuesday. Dillon Dingler was in the training room when he saw the news on Instagram.<\/p>\n
\u201cTen minutes later,\u201d Dingler said, \u201cI saw him (in the clubhouse).\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps because of his status as the team\u2019s ace, Skubal was one of few who had an idea the Verlander move was coming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was giddy as a kid,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cThis is a childhood idol that I get to be lockermates with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skubal has long admired the game\u2019s greats, mostly from afar. Over the past two-plus years, Verlander began developing his own admiration for the big left-hander who was dispatching hitters in his old stomping grounds.<\/p>\n
Last season, before a Tigers-Giants game, Verlander stopped Skubal in the outfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to introduce myself and say hi,\u201d Verlander said.<\/p>\n
That type of meeting is the very thing a younger version of Verlander might not have prioritized. Now one week shy of his 43rd birthday, Verlander has become known as a softer, more open version of himself when away from the mound. The pitcher who once arrived to the park with headphones on and a look that practically said talk to me at your own risk has slowly evolved from heat-seeking missile to a more three-dimensional man.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy daughter really changed me to the core,\u201d Verlander said. \u201cJust wanting to be more present is something I\u2019ve really worked hard on. I was always like the horse with blinders on. I\u2019ve been trying to pitch and all the noise was just exactly that. Noise. I probably missed a lot of things along the way, and I think I learned to remove those blinders and take in the bigger picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
This new Verlander \u2014 still a pitcher chasing down 300 wins, still a driven veteran who has asked the likes of Tom Brady and Tiger Woods for advice on maintaining performance as the years mount \u2014 returns to the Tigers in a fascinating position. This is a club that has made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons, forging its own identity with a young cast of hitters and homegrown pitchers, including Skubal and Casey Mize.<\/p>\n
Adding a player of Verlander\u2019s stature still fundamentally alters the energy of any clubhouse. But more so than ever, the Tigers are built to win. And Verlander is in a better position to teach, lead and guide.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that I\u2019ve actively worked on, my communication in the locker room,\u201d Verlander said. \u201cThat mindset I talked about earlier wasn\u2019t really conducive to being the best teammate when I was younger. I don\u2019t regret it because I think I needed that mentality to be the pitcher that I was. But that perspective shift has really changed things. Proactively going to talk to guys, making sure that they know I\u2019m available at any time and not too scary to talk to, hopefully. That\u2019s something I relish now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, Skubal and Tigers brass sitting across from each other in an arbitration hearing was the biggest story in this team\u2019s orbit. You probably know the deal. The Tigers, with influence from MLB\u2019s Labor Relations Department, filed at $19 million. Skubal, advised by agent Scott Boras, filed at $32 million.<\/p>\n
A three-person panel of arbiters sided with Skubal, blasting past the record for highest arbitration salary and potentially changing the way young star pitchers are compensated in the future.<\/p>\n
Thursday at his locker, Skubal had much to address. As a member of the MLBPA\u2019s executive subcommittee, he admitted he played an active role in the arbitration filing.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst off, it was a great process,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cI have a great agent, a team of 40-50 people that had been working on this for over a year and knew that this was going to happen and were prepared for it. They were able to present and prove to a panel of three arbitrators that I\u2019m worth the amount of money that I\u2019m worth and my value. That was a great process, and that\u2019s something I\u2019ll never take for granted from my agency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skubal stood in front of a group of reporters, the nature of the questions far different than they might have been had the Tigers not signed Valdez and then Verlander.<\/p>\n
Ever the competitor, Skubal said he did his best to block out the noise that came with offseason trade rumors that never materialized.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe business for \u201926 is done, and that\u2019s what it is,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cAs far as competition, you can never let anything like that impact you. I want to win, and I want to win as bad as anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
With contracts and controversy over for now, Skubal mostly awed at the prospect of playing on the same team as the man who was the last great Tigers ace. Only one locker separates them in the spring-training clubhouse.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, Verlander traversed his old-and-new home wearing black Brooks running shoes with extra cushioning, grinning even as he partook in pitchers\u2019 fielding practice. Skubal roamed the spring backfields in Nike spikes, practically attached to Verlander\u2019s hip.<\/p>\n
At one point this week, Skubal observed Verlander throwing his fastball. He asked him what sort of cue he uses upon release.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe gives me a cue, I tried it, and it doesn\u2019t resonate with me,\u201d Skubal said. \u201cBut that\u2019s the thing \u2014 something will. That\u2019s the best takeaway. He\u2019s gonna have an impact on a lot of guys here, just with his presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turns out Skubal isn\u2019t the only one eager to observe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just excited to learn,\u201d Verlander said, \u201csee (Skubal\u2019s) routines, see what he does behind the scenes, if there\u2019s anything I can help with, if there is anything he can help me with.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAKELAND, Fla. \u2014 Soon after Justin Verlander arrived at the TigerTown complex this week, the ace of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,53,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-570065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-detroit-tigers","10":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116063121307986437","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}