Justin Verlander is coming back to Detroit.
The Tigers have signed pitcher Justin Verlander to a one-year contract for the 2026 season worth $13 million guaranteed, the team announced Tuesday.
Verlander, 43, is a three-time AL Cy Young Award Winner, nine-time A.L. All-Star, 2006 A.L. Rookie of the Year and 2011 AL Most Valuable Player, Cy Young and Triple Crown winner. He now returns to the organization that originally selected him in the first round of the 2004 Draft. The deal includes $11M in deferred payments starting in 2030.
According to the Tigers:
"Verlander rejoins the Tigers after spending the first 12-plus years (2005-17) of his major league career in Detroit. He was a dominant force during the club’s most-successful stretch of the past 40 years, helping lead the club to a pair of World Series appearances (in 2006 and 2012) and four-straight playoff appearances from 2011-14, the only time such a post-season run has occurred in franchise history. Verlander returns as Major League Baseball’s active leader with 266 wins, 3,567.2 innings pitched, 555 starts and 3,553 strikeouts, the eighth-most in major league history.
"In his now 20-season career with the Tigers (2004-17), Houston Astros (2017-22, 2023-24), New York Mets (2023) and San Francisco Giants (2025), Verlander has gone 266-158 with a 3.32 ERA in 555 regular season starts and 17-12 with a 3.58 ERA in 38 outings (37 starts) in the playoffs, qualifying for the playoffs 10 times or exactly half of his entire major league career. He has won a pair of World Series with the Astros (2017 and 2022) and was named the 2017 ALCS MVP after going 2-0 with a 0.56 ERA in two starts to lead Houston to the A.L. pennant.
"Verlander has won 10 or more games 15 times in his remarkable career, beginning with when he went 17-9 with a 3.63 ERA in 30 starts in 2006 to earn Rookie of the Year honors and help the Tigers to their first World Series appearance since 1984. That rookie campaign also marked his first of 13 seasons of reaching 30 or more starts. Overall, Verlander reached double digits in wins with 30 or more starts in nine-straight seasons from 2006-14, turning in one of the most impressive stretches of pitching dominance by any pitcher this century.
"Starting that rookie season, his nine-year run from 2006-14 featured a slew of awards and honors, including Verlander’s first of nine All-Star nods in 2007 when he went 18-6 with a 3.66 ERA in 32 starts. The 2009 campaign (19-9, 3.45 ERA, 35 starts) marked the start of five-straight All-Star honors, punctuated by a season for the ages in 2011 when Verlander went 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA, 250 strikeouts and an 8.6 WAR to earn A.L. MVP, A.L. Cy Young and A.L. Triple Crown honors. He backed that up a season later by going 17-8 with a 2.64 ERA and 8.1 WAR in 33 starts to finish runner-up for the Cy Young and help lead the Tigers to their second World Series appearance in the last seven campaigns.
"Verlander was traded to Houston on August 31, 2017, and closed that regular season by going 5-0 with a 1.06 ERA in five starts to help lead the Astros to the playoffs and ultimately their first World Championship in franchise history. After finishing runner up for the Cy Young in 2018 (16-9, 2.52 ERA, 34 starts), Verlander earned his second Cy Young in 2019 when he went 21-6 with a 2.58 ERA and a career-best 300 strikeouts, his ninth season with more than 200 strikeouts let alone 300, in 35 outings (34 starts), helping to lead the Astros to their second A.L. pennant in three years before losing to Washington in Game 7 of the World Series.
"After missing the 2021 campaign due to Tommy John surgery the previous September, Verlander returned to win his third A.L. Cy Young Award in 2022. He went 18-4 with a career-low 1.75 ERA in 28 starts in a season that featured Houston’s third pennant and second World Series championship in the past six seasons. Verlander signed with the New York Mets for the 2023 season before he was re-acquired by the Astros at that same season’s trade deadline, sticking with Houston through the 2024 campaign before pitching for the San Francisco Giants in 2025.
"In 2025, his lone full season spent in the National League of his career, Verlander went 4-11 despite a 3.85 ERA in 29 starts for the Giants, his most starts in a campaign since 2019. It was a tale of two halves for Verlander as he went 0-8 with a 4.99 ERA in his first 16 starts through July 18 before finishing strong with a 4-3 record and 2.60 ERA in 13 starts the rest of the way. His 3.85 ERA was nearly identical to his 3.88 FIP but his 3.97 run support average tied for seventh lowest among N.L. pitchers with 25 or more starts.
"Verlander joins Don Newcombe as the only two players in major league history to win Rookie of the Year, MVP and Cy Young honors throughout their careers. Verlander is one of only three pitchers to ever win at least three Cy Young awards. He rejoins the Tigers ranked second in franchise history with 2,373 strikeouts (Mickey Lolich is first with 2,679), second with a 56.6 WAR as a pitcher (Hal Newhouser is first at 58.8), fifth with 380 starts, seventh with 183 wins and eighth with 2,511.0 innings pitched.
"A native of Manakin Sabot, VA, Verlander graduated from Goochland (VA) High School and was selected by Detroit with the second overall pick of the 2004 Draft out of Old Dominion University."