Verlander says SF Giants were not on his radar until Posey called

The SF Giants added to their starting rotation by signing veteran pitcher Justin Verlander. The soon to be 42-year-old said San Francisco was not really on his radar until president of baseball operations Buster Posey reached out.

On Monday Verlander has an introductory press conference over Zoom where he discussed his motivations for joining the Giants and why he thinks he can still be an effective pitcher. The press conference can be viewed below:

Verlander did not think he would be on SF Giants at start of offseason

Verlander gave a lot of interesting answers about how he feels he can be a mentor to younger pitchers and why he feels he can bounce back from an injury-plagued 2024 season. However, one of his more interesting answers came when asked about why he chose the Giants.

"Quite frankly, before Buster called me, wasn't really in my consideration. In doing some research after Buster called me obviously, immediately you're like,'Man, really tough division.' Gonna be tough and obviously that's true."

Verlander went on to say that despite a stacked NL West, he believes the Giants fly a bit under the radar and have some solid pieces to be a good team.

When asked later why the Giants were not on his radar initially, he said that he just did not think there would be any interest and did not expect the Giants to call. He also said he was in talks with some other teams so he did not expect San Francisco to get into the mix.

However, he seemed excited about the opportunity with San Francisco. He clearly believes that he has some good years left in the tank and spoke about how he is adjusting his offseason approach to try and prevent injuries in 2025.

Of course, it will be tough to keep Verlander healthy for a full season at the age of 42. But it is still nice to see that he clearly still believes in his ability to pitch at a high level and felt good enough about the situation in San Francisco that he is willing to join the team.

He also still has the fire to compete still which is something that Posey asked him about on that initial phone call. Verlander said that it was refreshing to get to talk with a former player like Posey especially when so many front offices are run by analysts.

We will see what he has left in the tank, but if he ends up looking more like the Verlander of 2023 rather than the Verlander of 2024 then Posey will be happy that he made that phone call.