The Josh Innes Show - Random Thoughts: Verlander To The Mets

Episode Date: December 5, 2022

The JV Era is over in Houston. I'm gonna miss him. That said, desperate teams make desperate moves. The Astros aren't a desperate team and that's a good thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, I got a few Verlander thoughts here. Verlander is going to the Mets, and he's got a lot of money for it and more power to him. It is two years, $86 million. That is, by the math, $43 million a year. Now, it ain't my money. I like when people get all caught up in the money that people make. Fuck it. Who cares about how much money somebody makes?

It's all gabillionaires involved in the money anyway making these deals. So it doesn't really impact me, nor do I care that much about how much somebody makes. Teams always kind of find a way around bad deals anyway. In particular in football, not as much in baseball, but you can get around bad contracts and all that. So how much money somebody makes isn't really of that much concern to me. But here's the thing to remember about Verlander, if we want to keep this in perspective. First off, I felt like there were a lot of people

that kind of turned on Verlander over the last couple of years in Houston, not necessarily people in the organization. But I do know, at least when I was there, there were some players that didn't seem to like Verlander. Fine, whatever. But it's important to note that fans, I feel, kind of had a growing disdain because Verlander didn't put up huge numbers in the postseason, which, look, I'm not going to judge a guy based on that

only because it's such a small sample size. There are a lot of guys that just don't produce in the postseason. That means they're bad players. And by the way, Verlander had some really good freaking games for the Astros too. I think people remember towards the end here where it wasn't as great in this postseason doesn't mean they're bad players. And by the way, Verlander had some really good freaking games for the Astros too. I think people remember towards the end here where it wasn't as great in this postseason. He had one really good game. But he had some really great postseason moments for the Astros and had some really big game moments for the Astros as well.

So let's not sit here and act like Verlander was a dud, which most people aren't. But looking at it from a deal perspective, they're probably not going to pay a guy. You probably don't want to be a team if you're a winning team, which most people aren't. But looking at it from a deal perspective, they're probably not going to pay a guy. You probably don't want to be a team if you're a winning team, which the Astros are. They're coming off a World Series. They've won two in the last five years. The Astros are not a desperate team that has to win a World Series. They do not have a media that holds them accountable for much. Their fan base, I mean, I love you guys, but you're a bunch of sycophants who don't hold them accountable for anything. You pick people you dislike and shit on them like Dusty or in this case also James Click. You hate him. So you find the guys on the team that everyone hates and you hate them. But there's no media accountability with the Astros. They blow the Astros and the Astros have actually kind of earned that being that they've been damn good for the last half decade and they've won two World Series. You earn a little bit of cachet and people don't question you as much.

But there's no accountability in Houston. The media, if the Astros start to stink again, you know what'll happen? They'll just stop talking about the Astros. If the Mets stink, they talk about them forever. If the Yankees stink in New York, they talk about them forever. In Philly, Boston, New York, same shit. Chicago to an extent. It all happens there.

Houston's not a place like that. So that's one. Two, because they've won two World Series, you don't have to pay pitchers $43 million a year because you've proven you are a solid winning franchise. You've proven that you can step up and go, hey, we lose Correa, great, Peña's here. We can lose, you know, Uli can fall off a cliff, we can go sign a Bray, but we can make up for what we lost. You've proven over the last five years that even when someone goes, somebody new can replace them.

Oh, we lost Springer, we can replace him. You've proven you can do that. You've proven that you're a well-run organization. Now, I question what they're going to be moving forward because I am skeptical of what they'll be. Firing a good GM, a winning GM, is not a recipe for success in my opinion, but we'll see how it goes. What they have at least proven in the past over this last half decade is they are well run, they don't give out bad deals, and virtually every deal they make turns

out to be a success at some level. They have very few duds. So a team that's won two World Series, has some goodwill built up, they don't have to pay $43 million for a starting pitcher that is old and didn't perform as well in the postseason, and that the fan base is sort of soured on, right? And there's only been kind of a disconnect there anyway. It feels like it's been more prevalent the last year to kind of a disconnect, fan base, Verlander, whatever. They're not desperate. They don't have to go out and win the World Series next year. Be nice, but if they go to the playoffs and lose in the divisional series or the divisional round, okay, whatever. If they go out and lose in the LCS, fine.

They're not desperate because they've won two. When you give a guy $43 million a year that's in his 40s or near his 40s. You're desperate. The Mets are desperate. They need the attention in New York. They need to win. They haven't done it in forever. It is a must. So they do that.

That's the moves that are made. If the Astros had not won a World Series, say they never got Verlander in 17, and let's say they needed to win that World Series, you write $43 million checks. The Astros are not that type of organization because they do not need to be that type of organization. The Yankees have to do that because the Yankees don't win World Series. They haven't done so in over a decade. And you're in New York. There's pressure. The reason why the Phillies give $400 million or whatever it was, $350, $380 million to Bryce Harper is you have to win in Philadelphia. They were irrelevant for a

decade. They had to. Those are the kind of deals you give when you are desperate, when winning is a must at this point because you've been a massive failure and haven't won in forever. So I'm fine with it. I don't know who pulled the strings on it, who decided not to do it. I guess Jeff Bagwell was hammered one day and said, hey, what's that sign? This is Verlander. They're like, you got it.

But first, let's make sure that Reggie Jackson is on board as well. Maybe that's what it was, maybe it wasn't. But I'm fine with them not giving Verlander $43 million a year. It's not my cash. He pitched very well. He won a Cy Young. He'd be fine. But I don't think that that's a necessity.

I don't think they need him and I don't think he needs them. This was a great example of two entities that needed each other and got what they wanted out of it. The Astros needed that. I remember when I was in the shower that morning, I guess it was late August, early September when the deal went down and Jilly walked in and said, the Astros got Verlander. I went nuts. I said, this is amazing. This is great. They needed him. He needed, they needed him. He needed them. The Astros needed to win, and Verlander needed to get a ring, and he ended up getting two. Both sides got two out of it.

They all won. Everybody was successful, and now you move on. Doesn't seem like an angry breakup. Doesn't seem like there's a ton of animosity. It just kind of ran its course. Just kind of, eh, you know, we've had enough. It's time to move on, and I'm totally fine with that. Good on both sides.