Seems unlikely that they would have DFA’ed Scrubb before Verlanders physical was done. Any number of things are possible: Verlander started having 2nd thoughts. Houston was making progress on another deal that either gave them 2nd thoughts about Verlander or made them want to keep that roster spot open. There was a red flag in the physical that wasn’t known until after Scrubb was DFA. Verlander and Houston mutually agreed to delay the signing to keep the 40 man roster spot open. I don’t suppose there’s anything technically preventing the Astros from keeping the signed contract and not filing it with the league until after the lockout. So the deal may indeed be done, just not submitted to the league office yet.
The Astros did not make the re-signing of Justin Verlander official prior to the lockout. And it can't become official until a new CBA is in place, which means Verlander is still technically a free agent. It's curious, because reports of Verlander's one-year, $25 million deal (with a $25 million player option for 2023) surfaced two weeks prior to the expiration of the previous CBA. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes that the "logical conclusion is that an issue arose" with Verlander's physical. That's just speculation at this point, though. Verlander hasn't commented on the situation and the Astros aren't able to during the lockout. The 38-year-old, of course, is on the comeback trail from Tommy John surgery. This is from RotoWorld
A few people on twitter/reddit have stated that supposedly JV and KU have been traveling in Europe... that would be an obvious explanation if true. UPDATE: JV is very obviously in Europe per his ig. How is this being ignored by the media? Is no one even asking?
You'd think the Astros would just say that if that were the case. It's still a terrible idea on JV's part. He has an agent. Documents are signed digitally these days - it's not hard and would take like 2 minutes. If JV gets injured over the next few months, there's going to be all sorts of potential issues there. It's kind of malpractice on his agent's part if it was just "they're out of town". There is likely something more going on here.
Or maybe they mutually agreed to delay the signing until the Spring to give them time to make other adjustments and monitor Verlander’s health until Spring Training.
That would be extremely stupid on Verlander's part (and his agent). There's no upside for him there and a ton of downside.
Sure, but why would Verlander be the slightest bit interested in signing a minor league deal? The Astros were not the only team to extend him a contract offer. If the Astros now came back and said "Here is a minor league offer that converts to a 1+1 if you make the team", Verlander would say "No thank you" and would be playing on another team next year
Pretty sure he has what he needs. Part of the situation with the team not wanting him to throw out the first pitch was that he had not he had not been around or used the Astros facilities/coaches/staff at all during his rehab. There is information somewhere in this thread about it. If he did not feel it was necessary then, I cannot see why he would feel it is necessary now. Again, from Verlander's perspective - no benefit
Per Click, the structure of Verlander’s contract didn’t get approved by the MLB. There’s apparently some milestones built into it. I’m guessing incentive based but I don’t know. They’ll work it out but there’s nothing sinister going on, Verlander is an Astro.
1) McCullers confirmed that Verlander is coming back. 2) New CBA may change what can be included as incentive bonuses as it was previously rather limited. 3) An additional deal may have been in the works, and you want to avoid prematurely releasing a player off the 40 man.
His brother said he was coming back as well. There was speculation in this thread as to why the deal wasn’t done before the lockout, which is why I made the post when I found out why.
