Justin Verlander’s Had Better Days

He looked a little bigger, and a little greyer. But Justin Verlander in a Tigers jersey is still 2011 AL MVP Justin Verlander in a Detroit Tigers jersey. Nine years, two World Series wins, and two Cy Youngs since he last pitched for the club that drafted him, the 43-year-old took the mound for his new old team's fourth game of the 2026 season. I had to snap a picture to capture the moment. I'm searching for a more interesting word than "surreal" and coming up short. Seeing "VERLANDER" and 35 on that specific road uniform takes me back to a completely different version of myself—a confused student who has yet to learn basically any lesson she'll consider important by the time she gets to age 30. An athlete's life advances at the same pace as your own, but Verlander's career has taken such a strange loop back around that it's left me a little dizzy. He's been to Houston, and then the operating room, then Queens, then Houston again, and then San Francisco before signing this one-year deal. It kind of feels a little arrogant, after what's become such a long and varied career, to even make the claim that JV has returned "home." Detroit isn't the only city that can claim him.