SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Justin Verlander and the San Francisco Giants have agreed to a $15 million, one-year contract, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the deal was pending a physical.
It's the latest big move by new Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey since he was hired in September to replace Farhan Zaidi.
San Francisco also signed free agent shortstop Willy Adames to a $182 million, seven-year contract in December.
This will be the 20th major league season for Verlander, a three-time AL Cy Young Award winner who turns 42 next month. He would join a Giants rotation led by All-Star righty Logan Webb.
Verlander went 5-6 with a 5.48 ERA in 17 starts for the AL West champion Houston Astros last year. He opened the season on the injured list with shoulder inflammation. He also was on the IL from June 18 to Aug. 21 because of neck discomfort.
The right-hander had a 9.26 ERA in five September starts and was left off Houston’s postseason roster when the team was swept by Detroit in an AL Wild Card Series. He became a free agent after he failed to pitch 140 innings, a total that would have triggered his ability to exercise a $35 million conditional player option.
After the Astros were eliminated from the playoffs, Verlander said he thought he had "a lot more to give” next season and beyond.
“I definitely feel like I want to continue to pitch and compete and I’m not ready to step away yet,” he said in October.
Verlander, a Virginia native who played college ball at Old Dominion, was selected by Detroit with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2004 amateur draft. He made his big league debut with the Tigers in 2005.
The 6-foot-5 ace spent his first 12-plus seasons with Detroit. He won his first Cy Young Award and was voted AL MVP after he went 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA in 2011.
He was traded to Houston in August 2017 and helped the team capture the franchise’s first World Series title that same year. He won two more Cy Young Awards and another championship during his first stint with the Astros.
Verlander signed an $86.7 million, two-year contract with the New York Mets as a free agent in December 2022. The nine-time All-Star made 16 starts for New York before he was traded back to Houston for two minor leaguers.
Verlander is 262-147 with a 3.30 ERA in 526 career starts. He is baseball’s active leader in wins, strikeouts (3,416), innings (3,415 2/3), starts and complete games (26). He also has a 17-12 record with a 3.58 ERA in 38 career postseason appearances.
AP Baseball Writer Jay Cohen contributed to this report.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
FILE - Houston Astros starting pitcher Justin Verlander delivers against the Cleveland Guardians during the first inning of a baseball game in Cleveland, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Phil Long, File)
ROME (AP) — An Italian journalist detained in Iran for three weeks was freed Wednesday and was heading home, after her fate had become intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer arrested in Italy and wanted by the United States.
A plane carrying Cecilia Sala, 29, left Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office said, adding that she had personally informed Sala's parents.
Iranian media acknowledged the journalist’s release, citing only the foreign reports. Iranian officials offered no immediate comment.
Sala, a reporter for the Il Foglio daily, was detained in Tehran on Dec. 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist visa. She was accused of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic, the official IRNA news agency said.
Italian commentators had speculated that Iran detained and held Sala as a bargaining chip to ensure the release in Italy of Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport three days before, on Dec. 16, on a U.S. warrant.
The U.S. Justice Department has accused Abedini and another Iranian of supplying the drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a U.S. outpost in Jordan that killed three American troops.
Abedini remains in detention in Italy but has asked a Milan court to grant him house arrest pending an extradition hearing.
Sala’s release was met with cheers in Italy, where her plight had dominated headlines.
It came after Meloni made a surprise trip to Florida last weekend to meet with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Meloni in a statement on X thanked “all those who helped make Cecilia’s return possible, allowing her to re-embrace her family and colleagues.”
Meloni’s visit to Trump had a strong impact on the premier's international standing, which strengthened Italy’s hand in negotiations, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said.
“Any time you can reinforce the credibility of a leader of a country at a particular moment, the stronger the country is,” he told Italy’s Sky TG24.
Sala's fate had become intertwined with that of Abedini. Each country's foreign ministry summoned the other's ambassador to demand the prisoner's release and decent detention conditions. The diplomatic tangle was particularly complicated for Italy, which is a historic ally of Washington but maintains good relations with Tehran.
Members of Meloni's cabinet took personal interest in the case given the geopolitical implications. Foreign Minister Antonio Tanaji and Crosetto hailed the diplomatic teamwork involved to secure Sala's release, which amounted to a significant domestic and diplomatic victory for Meloni.
But the release also posed a delicate political question for Italy given Abedini's status. The United States has complained in the past when Italy has lost track of suspects in the Italian judicial system awaiting hearings for extradition to the U.S.
Advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, which had flagged Sala's detention as an attack on press freedom, cheered her release.
“Now the 25 journalists still held in Iranian prisons must also be released,” the group said in a social media post.
Since the 1979 U.S. Embassy crisis, which saw dozens of hostages released after 444 days in captivity, Iran has used prisoners with Western ties as bargaining chips in negotiations.
In September 2023, five Americans detained for years in Iran were freed in exchange for five Iranians in U.S. custody and for $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be released by South Korea.
Western journalists have been held in the past. Roxana Saberi, an American journalist, was detained by Iran in 2009 for around 100 days before being released.
Also detained by Iran was Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, who was held for more than 540 days before being released in 2016 in a prisoner swap between Iran and the U.S.
Both cases involved Iran making false espionage accusations in closed-door hearings.
Elisabetta Vernoni, mother of Cecilia Sala an Italian journalist who was detained on Dec. 19 as she was reporting in Iran, leaves Palazzo Chigi after meeting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, in Rome, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)
