Two parts of one of the greatest Detroit Tigers rotation in history decided their futures

Over the last few seasons, Detroit Tigers fans have seen three members of a rotation first built in 2010 have success elsewhere. First, it was Max Scherzer, who won the NL Cy Young award in 2016 just three seasons after winning the same award with the Tigers. In the same season, Rick Porcello won the award for Boston in the AL. Justin Verlander was the runner-up.

Porcello, who has not pitched since 2020, has announced his retirement on Monday. As you recall, back in 2021, then General Manager Al Avila and Porcello discussed a Tigers reunion, but nothing came from it. He made it official on the “Bradfo Sho” which you can hear the audio below.

“I wanted to be with my family,” said Porcello, “I wanted to get back into that type of lifestyle and be around them because every year that you’re gone is another year where your parents are getting older, and your brothers are getting older.”

In six seasons with Detroit, Porcello went 76-63 and produced a 10.3 bWAR in Tigers uniform. He was traded to Boston following the 2014 season for Yoenis Céspedes, Gabe Speier and Alex Wilson. A big tip of the cap to Porcello, who will work with youth baseball in Vermont besides spending more time with his family. His final season in the majors was with the Mets.

Another former Detroit Tigers pitcher goes to Flushing

Speaking of the Mets, they inked Justin Verlander to a two-year, $86 million dollar deal. He will be reunited with Scherzer for potentially one of the best and oldest ace combos in the NL. From a historical perspective, Verlander and Scherzer are neck and neck in terms of strikeouts.

Justin Verlander is 12th all time with 3,198 strikeouts. Max Scherzer is 13th with 3,193. That will be a grueling battle to watch in Queens next summer.

— Wayne Randazzo (@WayneRandazzo) December 5, 2022

Verlander, fresh off his third Cy Young award season in which he finished 18-4 with an ERA of 1.75 for Houston, gives the Mets another starter after losing Jacob deGrom to the Rangers.

The winter meetings kicked off on Sunday in San Diego. As far as the rest of the week goes, on Tuesday, the first ever MLB Draft Lottery will air on MLB Network starting at 8:30pm. Then they will wrap up with the Rule 5 draft that will be live on an audio feed on MLB.com starting at 5pm.

Myself and the rest of the Woodward Tigers squad will stream live if the Tigers make any moves in the next few days.