Nostalgia is a powerful weapon. Sometimes it blinds us, and sometimes it gets us crying in the club. The Justin Verlander signing is an example of the latter.
There are a few things worth pointing out here. Number one is that Reese Olson's ultimate calling might be the bullpen. Whenever you hear about a guy not being ready for Opening Day before they’ve even thrown a pitch in spring training, I feel like it’s not always a great sign. Reese has a history of injuries. Say what you will about 43-year-old Justin Verlander, but you can rely on the guy to take the ball every fifth day. He’s been remarkably durable and is probably viewed as more of a sure-fire thing at this point, even though Reese has a much higher ceiling given where he’s at in his career. Also, everything is good with the Framber Valdez signing, right? He’s going to be good to go when he passes his physical, right? I just want to make sure. Maybe this is total paranoia on my part, but it kind of seems like this offseason might be a little bit too good to be true.
As I said in the video, maybe this was all a part of Scott Harris‘s master plan from the beginning. I don’t think so. I think something has changed. I don’t know if it was a change of heart similar to what Mike Ilitch had after the embarrassing 2003 season, or if Detroit finally saw a window of opportunity, knowing they had only one year left with Tarik Skubal. I guess we’ll never know, quite frankly, it doesn’t matter.
The Tigers are positioned to be one of the best teams in the American League. They have a pitching staff that is going to be a nightmare to face. And unlike the first time Verlander was here, it’s not just a starting staff. This should be a good bullpen as well. I still think that the concerns with the offense are fair. There’s a lot more that I’m going to need to see before I’m officially bought in to this core at the big league level, but this is a huge step in the right direction. Framber Valdez was the Sundae, and the Justin Verlander move is officially the cherry on top.