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Justin Verlander is a Giant, Gavin Lux is a Red and who knows who might still end up in an Angels uniform in the coming weeks? Plus: Some baseball players’ wives are turning one of their biggest headaches into a business. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
Orange You Intrigued?: Verlander joins Giants on 1-year deal
Maybe he just really likes wearing orange.
Justin Verlander — formerly of the Tigers, Astros (twice) and Mets — has signed with the Giants for one year and $15 million.
Verlander, who turns 42 next month, is a nine-time All-Star, three-time Cy Young winner and the active leader in strikeouts (3,416, nine ahead of Max Scherzer) and wins (262, 46 ahead of Scherzer).
The list of pitchers with as many innings as Verlander (3,415 2/3) who have at least 3,000 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.30 or lower is just 11 pitchers long. Nine are in the Hall of Fame, and the 10th is Roger Clemens.
But at Verlander’s age, it’s not that helpful to look at career totals as a prediction of future results. What can the Giants expect from Verlander in 2025?
As Grant Brisbee puts it: “The potential upside is undeniable. The potential downside is as obvious as last year’s stat line.” That stat line? 5-6, 5.48 ERA, 74 strikeouts and 27 walks in 90 1/3 innings.
But as Brisbee also points out, it’s not a bad fit for Verlander — or the Giants, who have a lot of young arms that might be pretty good pretty soon … just maybe not yet. If Verlander can give the team half a season of starts, but a whole season of mentorship for a group that includes Kyle Harrison and Hayden Birdsong (both of whom will be 23 years old this season), that’s a pretty good investment.
And hey, if he performs well, but things don’t pan out for the Giants, they could always trade him to the Orioles to complete his Tour de Orange.
Ken’s Notebook: Angels lurking for free agents?
From my latest column:
Not that it would necessarily be smart, but the Los Angeles Angels are well-positioned to sign a free agent who rejected a qualifying offer, maybe even two.
The Angels hold the No. 2 pick in the draft. If they signed a qualified free agent, they would lose their second-highest selection, which is likely to be No. 47, and $500,000 from their international bonus pool. The only 47th pick in the last 25 years to compile more than 5 career bWAR is Matt Olson, who is at 32.8.
The signing of a second qualified free agent would cost the Angels their third-highest selection, likely to be No. 81, and another $500,000 in international bonus space. But the Angels gained an additional third-round selection, likely to be No. 107, after failing to sign the No. 81 overall pick last year, left-hander Ryan Prager.
The remaining qualified free agents are first baseman Pete Alonso, third baseman Alex Bregman, right-hander Nick Pivetta and outfielder Anthony Santander. Any of them would improve an Angels team that finished last season with a franchise-record 99 losses. But would any actually lift the club into contention?
One of the hitters might in a watered-down American League, particularly if — big if — Mike Trout is healthy. The Angels already have bolstered their offense by adding Jorge Soler, Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Newman. The addition of, say, the switch-hitting Santander would make the lineup that much deeper, enabling the Angels to bat their younger hitters lower in the order.
Pivetta, meanwhile, could join a rotation that already includes Yusei Kikuchi, Jose Soriano, Tyler Anderson, Kyle Hendricks and Reid Detmers. The Angels, however, might prefer free agents who are not subject to draft-pick compensation. Righty Jack Flaherty, a southern California native, could be one, though he would be more expensive than Pivetta. Outfielder Jurickson Profar, who like Santander is a switch hitter, could be another.
Price will dictate whether the Angels move forward on any remaining free agents. The team’s deals to this point — three years, $63 million for Kikuchi; two years, $12 million for d’Arnaud; one year, $2.75 million for Newman and one year, $2.5 million for Hendricks — seemingly were reasonable. So was the trade for Soler, which amounted to a net addition of about $22 million over two years when factoring in the subtraction of the pitcher who went to the Braves, Griffin Canning.
Angels owner Arte Moreno can be unpredictable. Given his team’s draft positions, the free-agent opportunities available and the state of the AL, it would not be surprising to see him strike.
Making Sense: Gavin Lux traded to the Reds
In our last newsletter, we quoted Dodgers beat writer Fabian Ardaya on the team’s infield situation, ending with: “Could that surplus be used to acquire pitching, with Lux seemingly perpetually the subject of public trade speculation?”
Good call, Fabs. On Tuesday, the Dodgers sent Lux to the Cincinnati Reds for 21-year-old outfielder Mike Sirota (not to be confused with Nationals pitcher Mike Soroka or former White Sox pitcher Mike Sirotka) and a competitive balance pick in the 2025 draft.
For L.A., it was simple: There wasn’t room on the roster for Lux, not with Mookie Betts moving to shortstop and Miguel Rojas and Hyeseong Kim likely splitting the playing time at second base. As Keith Law tells us, Sirota might be a first-round talent who slipped to the third round last year because of a rough start in his junior season at Northeastern.
For Cincinnati, the trade improves its lineup, with Lux hitting .262/.332/.407 (.739) against right-handed pitching last year in 437 plate appearances. Had he done that for the Reds, it would have been the second-highest OPS on the team against righties (min. 400 PA), behind Elly De La Cruz.
You could make the argument that the Reds sorta had a Gavin Lux already and traded him; Jonathan India hit .237/.343/.383 (.725) against right-handers last year (and was vastly better against lefties, with an .815 OPS to Lux’s .394). But Brady Singer will help the rotation, so if you think of it as a break-even-on-the-infielders move, then trading Sirota and a draft pick for Singer, it makes a little more sense.
More Dodgers: With Lux gone, Ardaya gives us his first shot at projecting the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster.
Fresh Ideas: Baseball wives turning hassle into profit?
For players and their families, one of the biggest hassles in the baseball life is the midseason trade. Imagine you’ve been working in Miami for the last five years, your kids are in school, your spouse is in a local book club and then — in the middle of a work day — your new employer is in Minneapolis.
More often than not, the player’s spouse is left behind to handle the logistics of moving an entire life across the country on short notice.
Enter Getaway Day Agency, a business started by Laurel Sharpe, the wife of longtime minor-league pitcher Steve Sharpe (now the international scouting director for the A’s).
The company focuses primarily on getting the players’ vehicles from point A to point B — though the vehicle often serves as a more immediate shipping container, with luggage, personal effects and essentials hastily thrown in to give players some of the comforts of home until the rest of the boxes arrive.
All six of Laurel Sharpe’s agents are wives or significant others of current or former players (including Madeline Poteet, whose husband Cody was traded from the Yankees to the Cubs for Cody Bellinger earlier this offseason). Sharpe’s company is one of a growing number of women-owned businesses designed to help with the logistics of navigating the often-nomadic professional athlete lifestyle, particularly in baseball.
Melissa Lockard has the full story here. It’s an interesting glimpse into a lifestyle that is as much a subculture as anything else.
Handshakes and High Fives
Drama in San Diego: Peter Seidler’s widow Sheel Seidler sued two of Peter’s brothers for control of the team. (Another brother, John, has been named point person, pending MLB approval). The next day, Matt Seidler rebutted many of Sheel’s claims (including a suggestion that they may want to relocate the team).
In other dispute news, here’s the latest from St. Petersburg, Fla., where the Rays now say they expect the city to repair the Trop in time for the 2026 season.
C. Trent Rosecrans parses through the known factors in Roki Sasaki’s decision and tries to handicap a favorite.
The A’s have signed Brent Rooker to a five-year extension worth $60 million.
In Monday’s Windup, Ken told you why his Hall of Fame ballot included CC Sabathia, but not Andy Pettitte. Jayson Stark explains why he came to a different conclusion.
Sentencing for Ippei Mizuhara has been delayed until Feb. 6 for a forensic psychologist’s report.
Chad Jennings has put together an all-free-agent team.
The Astros’ 13th-round draft pick won’t be at spring training. He’s playing football at Oregon instead.
Will Sammon walks us through the career of David Wright, whose No. 5 jersey will be retired by the Mets this year.
Former Orioles pitcher Brian Matusz died at just 37 years old.
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Jim Bowden’s predictions for where the top 15 remaining free agents will land.
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(Top photo: Troy Taormina / Imagn Images)
