Justin Verlander

Scout’s note

Justin Verlander is 43, a 6'5" right-hander from Manakin-Sabot, VA, drafted first overall in 2004 and in the big leagues since 2005. He has 3,554 strikeouts in 556 career games, and he is still taking the ball — which is the whole story.

Note written Aug 2 · FVR scout (GLM-5.2)

A market fact, not an engine read: what a club decided about him, on the season before this one. Figures from Cot’s, as of September 2, 2026.

2026 salary

$7.86M

Tax hit

$10.01M

Service time

20 yr 2 d

Options left

2 / 3

Regime flagged: the sheet's out-year codes read arbitration and 20.002 reads free_agency. Kept the sheet's; Super Two and optional assignments move this line and the service boundary cannot see them.

Cash and the tax hit are two different rulebooks and are never subtracted from one another — see the payroll board for his club, Detroit Tigers.

A second set of books

The same contract, read by MLB Spreadsheets (Ethan Hullihen), as of August 27, 2026. We keep two sources on this because one source cannot check itself.

Tax AAV

$10.0M

Guaranteed

$13.0M

Term

1 yr

His class

FA

The tax AAV above is his number under the CBA’s own rulebook, not the average we work out from Cot’s total. On a contract with deferred money the two come apart on purpose — and neither is subtracted from the other.

Collect Justin Verlander

If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:

High-end listings ($75+) →

Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.

Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.

The Bureau on Justin Verlander

The scouting press, in their own words