Things with Justin Verlander and the New York Mets ended with the defending Cy Young winner getting dealt back to the Houston Astros, and that was the right move for both the franchise and for the ace.
But then? We got the ol’ anonymous quote from a former Verlander teammate treatment.
Specifically, from the New York Post on Aug. 12: “A Met told Puma that Verlander was a ‘diva’ who was detached from his Mets teammates and complained about how the team’s analytics department was not at the level as the one he worked with during his first stint with the Astros. And it was that ‘diva’ attitude caused [Max] Scherzer to grumble some about Verlander.”
Whew. We now head over to Verlander, who posted this on X Monday afternoon:
— Justin Verlander (@JustinVerlander) August 14, 2023
There’s a lot going on here. “That being said,” coupled with talk of “constructive criticism” feels subtly salty. There’s a lot of speculation about whether that means he let his criticisms about the Mets’ analytics department be heard.
