How Much Longer Can the Giants Continue the Justin Verlander Experiment?

This past January, the San Francisco Giants reinforced their starting rotation by signing a legend in future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander. On Wednesday, they finally got another one of the performances they envisioned when they signed him.

Verlander threw five scoreless innings on a hit and five walks with three strikeouts in a road start against the Braves. The Giants would end up cruising their way to a 9-3 win.

In picking up the win, Verlander further established his place in MLB’s history books. The outing gave him his 263rd career win, which leaves him one win shy of Gus Weyhing for 40th on the all-time wins list.

It was also Verlander’s first win of the season.

The 42-year-old’s record now stands at 1-8, probably not what the Giants faithful were hoping to see coming into the final week of July. But it pretty much matches what his performance has looked like so far in 2025.

Verlander has made 17 starts this season and has a pedestrian 4.70 ERA with a 1.494 WHIP over 84.1 innings. He has yet to last more than 6.1 innings in a start this year and has failed to make it five innings five times.

The now 20-year veteran had been able to be a dominant pitcher well into the later years of his career, even after Tommy John surgery knocked out his 2021 campaign. That is, until last season.

In 2024, Verlander had his first poor season numbers-wise since very early on in his career, as he went 5-6 with a 5.48 ERA and 1.348 WHIP. It probably didn’t help, though, that he was limited to 17 starts due to shoulder and neck injuries.

The Giants came into this most recent offseason ready to make moves that would help bring them back to the playoffs. That was first evident when they made one of the biggest splash signings, inking shortstop Willy Adames, who has recently been on fire for San Fran.

The hope was that Verlander, back to full health, could have a bounce-back season in 2025. That hasn’t happened up to this point, and with the Giants having playoff aspirations, one has to wonder how long they can put up with this lack of production.

With only a few days to go before the trade deadline, the Giants are one of many teams within reach of a playoff spot. Though they’re seven games behind the Dodgers in the NL West, San Francisco is just three games out of the final NL Wild Card spot.

Their pitching has actually been a huge part of why the team is in playoff contention. They have the sixth-best team ERA in MLB at 3.66, with their starters ranking 13th with a 3.95 mark.

The Giants have needed that pitching performance to help keep an offense afloat that had underwhelmed until recently. On the season, San Francisco hitters rank just 21st in baseball with an average of 4.15 runs per game.

The team has gotten some great performances from the starting rotation. Logan Webb was an All-Star for the second straight year, while Robbie Ray joined him in the midst of his best season since his 2021 AL Cy Young campaign. Landen Roupp has been excellent in his first year as a full-time starter as well.

But on the other hand, two-fifths of their rotation to start the year struggled, and the Giants have already moved on from one of those pitchers. Jordan Hicks, who had a 6.55 ERA through his first nine starts this season, was first bumped to the bullpen and then traded to the Red Sox in the deal that brought over slugger Rafael Devers.

Sophomore Hayden Birdsong has taken over in his place and has had a rough go of things himself. In 10 starts since joining the rotation, he is 3-4 with a 6.17 ERA. He was optioned back to Triple-A last week.

So when it comes to internal options, the Giants have already tapped the well, especially since former top prospect Kyle Harrison was also shipped out in the Devers deal. So, how about external options?

Even with a surplus of buyers at this year’s deadline, there are plenty of teams out there with starters to spare. Teams like the Orioles, A’s, Angels, Diamondbacks, and White Sox all have multiple starters with whom they could look to part ways. Even fellow contenders like the Brewers and Rays could deal from their rotation depth to improve other parts of their rosters.

If the Giants decide to make a move for an available starter, it would probably be to slot into the role that Birdsong had occupied. So the question, then, is whether they would also do the same with Verlander in a second trade deadline deal.

That’s certainly a possibility. But there’s one other aspect of Verlander’s game that isn’t being taken into account: experience in a postseason race.

Verlander has taken part in ten postseasons and five World Series over the course of his career, not to mention numerous other playoff races. He’s been a champion twice and was once an ALCS MVP.

The rest of the current Giants’ starting rotation has an average age of 27.5. If San Francisco does end up snagging one of this year’s playoff spots, having Verlander around would be an invaluable resource that most other teams wouldn’t get to have.

So, although Verlander would likely say that he hasn’t performed up to his own standards, he has earned the benefit of the doubt to the point that the Giants could keep this experiment running. If anyone can flip the switch and carry a team down the stretch, it’s a future member of the Hall of Fame.