January 13 : The Giants made the deal official over the weekend and introduced Verlander to the media today. Per , in addition to the $15MM salary, Verlanders deal also contains awards bonuses and a full no-trade clause. January 7 : The Giants are in agreement with on a one-year deal, pending a physical. Verlander, a client of ISE Baseball, is reportedly guaranteed $15MM. The future Hall of Famer will play his age-42 season in San Francisco. Verlander has previously suggested he hopes to pitch until hes 45. There was never any doubt that hed be back on a one-year contract somewhere. It always seemed unlikely to continue in Houston. Verlander had an illustrious run with the Astros around his first half stay with the Mets in 2023. Hes coming off a challenging season, though, leading Houston to let him walk. Verlander took the ball 17 times and turned in a 5.48 earned run average through 90 1/3 innings. He had a pair of injured list stints first in April for shoulder inflammation, then a two-month stretch between June and August related to a neck i sue. Opponents tagged him for an ERA north of 8.00 over his seven starts after he returned from the latter Sean McDermott Jersey injury. Verlander conceded after the season that he had come back too soon as he tried to contribute to Houstons playoff push. San Francisco believes theres more in the tank with a healthy offseason. Verlander is only one year removed from an excellent season. He combined for a 3.22 ERA acro s 162 1/3 innings with New York and Houston in 2023. That came with a 21.5% strikeout rate that was well below Verlanders prior level. That pointed to regre sion from his Cy Young form, but he still found plenty of succe s with diminished swing-and-mi s stuff that year. Verlander averaged 93.5 MPH on his four-seam fastball last season. Thats down slightly from the 94-95 MPH range in which he sat between 2022-23 but hasnt completely fallen off the table. Pitching at le s than full strength could account for that dip. If Verlander is fully healthy in 2025, its not outlandish to expect his velocity to rebound. Health is an obvious caveat for a 42-year-old pitcher. Verlander has already defied expectations once, coming back from Tommy John surgery to win his third Cy Young at age 39 in 2022. Even if hes not likely to repeat that kind of performance, he could be an a set as a mid-rotation arm and veteran presence in a staff that lost . will be back to take the mantle as the teams #1 starter. Verlander and slot in the middle of the rotation as high-upside veterans who are trying to rebound from injuries. Former top prospect should be the fourth starter. President of baseball operations Buster Posey said last month that the Giants intend to give hard-throwing sinkerballer another chance at a rotation spot. Younger arms , and could push Hicks for the fifth starter role. This is the second free agent move of Poseys first winter atop baseball operations. His big splash was a seven-year deal to install at shortstop. Posey has publicly suggested that continuing to strengthen the offense was a bigger priority than the rotation, but they evidently liked the value of a one-year roll of the dice on Verlander. San Francisco had roughly $208MM in luxury tax obligations coming into today, as calculated by . This will push them to around $223MM, a little le s than $20MM shy of the $241MM base threshold. Verlanders deal matches the $15MM salaries which veteran starters and also landed earlier this winter. first reported that the Giants and Verlander had agreed to a one-year deal. reported the $15MM salary. Image courtesy of Imagn. Brandon Clarke Jersey