The lowdown on potential FA RHP Justin Verlander

Justin Verlander has said he wants to pitch until he is 45 years old.

He made the remark at age 35 in 2018, before undergoing Tommy John surgery two years later. A torn right UCL limited Verlander to just one start in 2020, forced him to miss all of 2021 and put a huge question mark above his head as he prepared for his age-39 season in '22.

Verlander then led MLB in ERA (1.75) for the first time in his acclaimed career. He had the lowest WHIP in the sport (0.83), paced the American League in hits per nine (6.0) over 175 innings and will likely claim his third AL Cy Young Award this month. He answered all questions in dominating fashion.

Verlander is a two-time World Series champion who has multiple Cy Young Awards, no-hitters and strikeout titles on his resume. Whenever he does decide to retire, he will have a plaque waiting for him in Cooperstown five years later. Maybe that day will come when Verlander is in his 50s because pitching until 45 no longer seems farfetched. He is a free agent for the second straight offseason after declining his $25 million player option for 2023.

Follow all of the latest Verlander rumors here.

Here’s what you need to know about Verlander:

FAST FACTS
Birthdate: Feb. 20, 1983 (Age 40 in 2023)
Primary position: SP
Height/weight: 6-foot-5, 235 pounds
Bats/throws: Right/right
Place of birth: Manakin-Sabot, Va.
School(s): Goochland (Va.) HS; Old Dominion University
Drafted: First round (2nd), 2004, by Tigers
MLB debut: July 4, 2005
Qualifying offer: Not eligible to receive one

THE NUMBERS
2022: 18-4, 1.75 ERA (220 ERA+), 185 K, 5.9 WAR* in 175 IP
Career: 244-133, 3.24 ERA (132 ERA+), 3,198 K, 78.2 WAR in 3,163 IP
*Per Baseball-Reference

STAT TO KNOW
With the 2022 AL Cy Young vote still to come, Verlander has ranked among the top five in Cy Young voting eight times during his career. Only six other pitchers have at least that many top-five finishes: Max Scherzer, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Tom Seaver and Jim Palmer.

QUESTION MARK
Will he sign a record-breaking contract? Scherzer inked a three-year, $130 million deal at the age of 37 last year. That $43.3 million average annual value is an MLB record. Even with Verlander's age-40 season upcoming, that AAV number could be on his mind if he enters free agency.

Age is just a number
Pitchers who miss 21 months of action following a major elbow operation don't typically come back better and throw harder at 39 years old. But most pitchers aren't Justin Verlander, who did see his average four-seam fastball velocity this season (95.0 mph) increase from his previous full season in 2019 (94.6 mph).

Verlander's radar gun readings at his age aren't just impressive; they are unprecedented. Across the regular season and postseason, he hit 98-plus mph 16 times in 2022. That's the most times for any starting pitcher older than 35 since the pitch-tracking era began in 2008. Verlander also recorded the fastest postseason strikeout -- 98.5 mph against the Yankees' Matt Carpenter in the ALCS -- by any starter 35 or older.

Atop the leaderboards
Has Verlander been the best starting pitcher of this century? Solely based on Baseball-Reference WAR, yes. Since 2000, no pitcher has compiled more WAR in the regular season than Verlander (78.2), who is a little more than five wins better than the No. 2 pitcher on that list, Clayton Kershaw (73.1).

Verlander is first or second among active players in a bunch of categories, including pitcher WAR (1st, 78.2), wins (1st, 244), strikeouts (1st, 3,198), innings pitched (2nd, 3,163), complete games (2nd, 26) and starter WPA (2nd, 40.1).

Postseason success
If you watched the 2022 World Series, you probably know that Verlander had the highest ERA of any pitcher with at least 30 Fall Classic innings (6.07) before picking up his first World Series victory in Game 5 versus the Phillies.

But that obscures the reality that Verlander has been pretty solid in October. He owns a career 3.64 ERA and a 3.77 FIP through 34 postseason starts. Those numbers have improved to 3.15 and 3.59, respectively, since 2012. Verlander's 230 postseason strikeouts are the most in AL/NL history, and no pitcher has more postseason starts with at least 10 K's than Verlander's eight.

He earned ALCS MVP honors in 2017 after he allowed one run over 16 innings against the Yankees. That series featured Verlander's 13-strikeout complete game, which is the most recent complete game in the postseason.

Verlander vs. the Big Hurt
Nolan Ryan was Verlander's idol growing up, but MLB's strikeout king is not the inspiration for Verlander's uniform number. Nope, he wears No. 35 because of another Hall of Famer, one who made a living off of making pitchers miserable: Frank Thomas.

Why?

"He was the Big Hurt!" Verlander exclaimed in 2014. "He was the big, menacing force in the batter's box, hitting a ton of homers."

But Thomas didn't hit much of anything against Verlander. Including the postseason, the two faced off 12 times before Thomas retired in 2010. He went 1-for-10 with a single, two walks and three strikeouts.