MLB's Oldest Active Player, Justin Verlander Is Back Where He Started with Detroit Tigers
Nearly a decade after he left, one of the best pitchers Detroit has ever seen is a Tiger again.
Trades are a natural part of most baseball players' careers, but sometimes a player moves teams in a way that makes everyone sit up and take notice. That happened earlier this year, when the Detroit Tigers signed a player who hasn't been part of their club in nearly a decade.
For Justin Verlander, it's a homecoming, a chance to put an exclamation point on his stellar career by pitching back where it all began, on the mound for the Tigers. But how did the oldest player in the big leagues get here, and what makes Verlander's return so interesting? Ahead of his upcoming start versus the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday Night Baseball on Peacock, let's take a closer look.
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Why is Justin Verlander's return to the Detroit Tigers so significant?
Justin Verlander's Major League Baseball career began in Detroit, when he was drafted by the Tigers in 2005. He made his debut on July 4th of that year, and sped ahead to win American League Rookie of the Year honors. He capped the season by starting his first World Series game, though the Tigers lost the series to the Cardinals.
Verlander spent the first 12 years of his career in Detroit, his longest stint in a career now spanning more than two decades. In that time, he earned many accolades and established himself as a Tiger legend, before moving on to the Houston Astros in 2017. After bouncing from the Astros to the Mets, back to the Astros, then to the Giants for the 2025 season, he's back on the mound for the Tigers.
It's a move that puts the right-hander in rarefied MLB air. According to MLB.com, Verlander is only the second pitcher in league history, after Don Sutton, to start at least 380 games with his first team, move on to other teams for another 175 starts, then come back home again. Players returning to their rookie clubs isn't all that common anyway when they've had a career like Verlander's, but the sheer amount of time he put in elsewhere, coupled with his long first stint in Detroit, makes this a very memorable moment for Tigers fans and baseball historians alike.
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Justin Verlander's career accomplishments
In a career spanning more than 20 years, Verlander's cemented himself as one of the great pitchers of his generation, and as a player who just keeps finding ways to make a comeback. During his initial 12-year stint in Detroit, he was named AL Rookie of the Year, earned five All-Star selections, won a Cy Young Award and the AL MVP award in the same year, and led the league in strikeouts four times.
In 2017, when he moved to Houston, Verlander immediately pushed towards greatness with the Astros, earning two World Series titles, another Cy Young Award, more All-Star selections, and, after sitting out the 2021 season to recover from elbow surgery, the Comeback Player of the Year Award. By any measure, he's an incredibly accomplished pitcher, and now he bears another interesting distinction: At 43, he's the oldest active player in the MLB.
We don't know how many more years Verlander will stay on the mound, but his first year back with Detroit after years away with other teams will definitely be one to watch. If we've learned anything from Justin Verlander's career, it's that he's always got something else left in the tank.
When to watch Justin Verlander's next start
Verlander will take the mound again for the Tigers when they face the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday Night Baseball, beginning at 7 p.m. ET on April 5, live on Peacock.
