{"id":620845,"date":"2026-03-12T22:08:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/620845\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T22:08:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:08:28","slug":"justin-verlander-opens-up-about-retirement-plans-before-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/620845\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Verlander Opens Up About Retirement Plans Before 2026 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Justin Verla<\/a>nder<\/a> is back with the Detroit Tigers<\/a> for the 2026 MLB season. In February, the Tigers signed Verlander to a one-year contract, solidifying the rotation with five starting pitchers. However, will this be the three-time AL Cy Young pitcher\u2019s last season before his inevitable MLB retirement?<\/p>\n

Verlander spoke about his retirement plans following a Spring Training game, as reported by Detroit Free Press\u2019 Evan Petzold<\/a>. While Verlander is aware that an injury or horrible season could make it his last, he still wants to chase 300 wins and pitch at 45 years old.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t know how much longer I\u2019m going to play,\u201d Verlander said. \u201cI know there\u2019s not a lot of time left, especially in the grand scheme of things. If I play for another two years, three years, whatever it is, out of 21 [years], it\u2019s like nothing. I\u2019m just trying to enjoy it a little more\u2026I don\u2019t want to sit here and sound like this is it. It could be. It\u2019s a one-year contract. If something catastrophic goes wrong, or I can\u2019t be healthy, that\u2019s it \u2013\u00a0I\u2019m done. All I know is there\u2019s not that much time left, so enjoy it while you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verlander is currently 43 years old, meaning he could pitch another two to three seasons. It isn\u2019t guaranteed that Verlander would spend those two to three seasons in Detroit, as he only signed a one-year contract. However, the 43-year-old pitcher would be a pretty good bet to return if he has a good campaign, with Tarik Skubal<\/a>, Jack Flaherty<\/a>, and Casey Mize<\/a> all scheduled to become free agents.<\/p>\n

The Tigers understand what Verlander\u2019s return means for the team and city, and it would only be fitting if Verlander retired in Detroit. Hopefully, Verlander doesn\u2019t retire as a Tiger for a few more seasons.<\/p>\n

Read More: Detroit Tigers Address Possibility of Extending Tarik Skubal After Signing Justin Verlander<\/a><\/p>\n

Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Verlander is back with the Detroit Tigers for the 2026 MLB season. In February, the Tigers signed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2386],"tags":[58537,5,399,147,53,2583,84,388,4,80088,382,594,6357],"class_list":{"0":"post-620845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-tigers","8":"tag-2026-mlb-season","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-casey-mize","11":"tag-detroit","12":"tag-detroit-tigers","13":"tag-detroittigers","14":"tag-jack-flaherty","15":"tag-justin-verlander","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-retirement-plans","18":"tag-tarik-skubal","19":"tag-tigers","20":"tag-verlander"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116218488948576029","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620845","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=620845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}