New York Mets Builds Most Expensive Player in ML History…37-year-old first attempt to win
Pitchers gathered in one team in the third inning of the Major League Cy Young Award. Justin Verlander (39), the “biggest FA pitcher,” reunited with Max Scherzer (38) wearing the New York Mets uniform. Next year, pitchers aged 39 to 40 made a one-two punch. The most expensive one-two punch in big league history has been born.
“MLB.com” announced Verlander’s transfer to the Mets on the 6th (Korea Standard Time) and said it had agreed to a two-year, $86.7 million contract. The annual average of $43.35 million exceeds the Scherzer of $43.33 million, the highest ever in Major League history.
The contract also included a besting option in which a contract of $35 million in 2025 will be automatically executed if Verlander throws more than 140 innings in 140 innings in 2024. In addition, all teams were given the right to refuse trade.
Verlander, who took a year off from rehabilitation after undergoing elbow ligament surgery last year, has been revived as an American League (AL) Cy Young Award this year when he turned 39. This is the third individual award since 2011 and 2019. He had an option with the Houston Astros for next year’s annual salary of $25 million, but he gave up. It came into the FA market with an opt-out.
Verlander, who will be 40 years old next year, aimed at treating him like a sugar level. Scherzer, who boasts three Cy Young Awards experiences in 2013 and 2016-2017, signed a three-year FA contract with the Mets in November last year for $130 million, making him the first major league player to become an average player of $40 million ($43.33 million).
Verlander, who will turn 40 next year, is two years older at the time of his contract than Scherzer, 38, this year. It was expected that it would be difficult to receive the same treatment, but the Mets met the conditions as much as possible. Although it is not a full three-year guarantee, it offered an annual average of $43.35 million, almost the same as Scherzer, with a maximum of three years including the besting option. Verlander’s contract details must be announced to know the exact salary, but the first and second highest salaries in Major League Baseball history have become one team.
The Mets’ pitcher Jacob deGrom, who has been an ace for nine years in the FA market, has moved to the Texas Rangers. The Mets offered a three-year, $120 million contract, but DeGrom did not look back at Texas, which had proposed a surprise five-year, $185 million deal. However, billionaire ‘stock rich’ owner Steve Cohen said, “I hope deGrom does well. “We have the right to choose our team,” he said coolly goodbye and said, “We have to move on now.”
The next step was Verlander. Three days after DeGrom left, he completed the Verlander contract. From Scherzer to Verlander, two pitchers will have the Cy Young Award alone in the third inning. They are veterans who will turn 39 to 40 next year alone, but they still have top-class skills. The Mets, which built an all-time one-two punch with hot investment, will challenge to top the World Series next year for the first time in 37 years since 1986. The Mets won 101 games, the second most in the club’s history this year, but lost to San Diego in the wild card series with 1 win and 2 losses after giving up the district title to the Atlanta Braves at the end of the season.
Meanwhile, Scherzer and Verlander have shared a five-year relationship with the Detroit Tigers between 2010 and 2014. After nine years, he will reunite in the Mets and share his career twilight years. He did not win the World Series during his time in Detroit. He reached the 2012 World Series, but lost all four games to the San Francisco Giants. Since then, Verlander has won twice in Houston in 2017 and this year, and Scherzer has solved his first championship in the Washington Nationals in 2019. Attention is focusing on whether the Mets will be able to collaborate on the joint championship that they failed to achieve during the Detroit period.