Despite no longer playing for the Mets, starting pitcher Justin Verlander has been nothing but classy about his tenure with the club.
Shortly after New York traded JV back to Houston, Mike Puma of the New York Post shared a long report about the Mets and how 2023 unraveled in Queens. Here’s part of what he said about Verlander:
Verlander and Scherzer had a strained relationship as Tigers teammates, and a source said even as the pitchers worked toward harmony with the Mets, there was occasional discord. Verlander was a “diva,” according to this Met, causing Scherzer to grouse about his fellow three-time Cy Young award winner. Verlander often complained about the Mets’ analytics department, which he deemed inferior to the one that served him in Houston.
Instead of digging his heels in, Verlander shared the following post on Twitter:
— Justin Verlander (@JustinVerlander) August 14, 2023
In a recent appearance on the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast, he discussed how the Astros are ahead of most in the analytics department. However, the three-time Cy Young winner thinks the Mets are on the right path:
I think the Astros have been on the forefront of analytics for a while so they had a headstart and I think the Mets are doing the right things to catch up. But you can’t replicate that time that’s lost. So they’re getting a lot of information. They ask me a lot of questions. It’s obviously different; just statistically, analytically time is valuable. You learn more with the more data you compile…
This is why you see organizations hire people from the Dodgers, Astros, especially early on. They wanted to learn what organizations were doing so they could catch up.
I mean, he’s not wrong. Los Angeles and Houston are among the most consistently competitive organizations in today’s MLB. Why wouldn’t other teams want to emulate what they do?
Regarding the Mets catching up, they recently opened a pitching lab that’ll hopefully increase the probability of getting the most out of pitchers in their organization.
Even if someone took offense to those comments from Justin Verlander on the Mets’ available analytics, he was 100% correct. Thankfully, it seems like those with the power to do so were already aware and are working to push the organization forward.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
