The San Francisco Giants are entering a new era in 2025. New shortstop Willy Adames is the headliner but changes to the rotation and upstairs have Cooperstown connections. President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey and the Giants brought in Justin Verlander on a one-year deal. The pitcher spoke highly of the former catcher as his first season in The Bay is about to begin.
“In his talks with Posey, Verlander found it refreshing to communicate with a decision-maker who valued qualities the analytics could not measure,” ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez wrote.
“I think it could very much be something that can lead to having a better organization,” Verlander told Gonzalez. “It’s like me pitching and probably him hitting and catching towards the end of his career — you were brought up in an age before analytics, and so you have this wealth of instinct. And this is why it’s hard to put words on it because you have all these instincts that you gained over time from playing the game, and then all of a sudden you’re inundated with numbers.”
The Giants brought in Verlander after losing Blake Snell to the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency. With Posey running the ship, they need to find every advantage over the Dodgers. Many may think analytics is the way to do that but Posey apparently disagrees.
This is intriguing considering where Verlander came from. The Houston Astros revived his career in 2017 with analytics and new pitching coaches. He won two more Cy Youngs after joining Houston and went back after the Mets disaster in 2022.
But the Giants wooed him west this offseason with a non-analytical approach. Could that mean the end of his Hall-of-Fame career? Or will his numbers get even better in his 40s?
The post Giants’ Justin Verlander drops honest Buster Posey admission appeared first on ClutchPoints.
