Justin Verlander has spent 22 years in a game that keeps changing around him, and that is part of why his view on pitcher usage carries weight. At 43, with 266 victories and 3,554 strikeouts, he is not speaking from theory. He is speaking from a career that has survived every shift from old-school workload expectations to the modern urge to get starters out earlier.
So when Verlander was asked in Philadelphia whether he had ever been pulled from a perfect-game or no-hitter bid, his answer was as direct as it gets: no. It was never even a conversation. That matters because the sport has moved in the opposite direction. From 1901 to 2015, no pitcher with a perfect game through six innings was taken out of a game. In the last 10 years, that has happened three times, including twice in four days last week.
A changing standard for starting pitchers
Verlander said it is hard for him to watch, and the reason is bigger than one historic bid. He argued that starting pitchers do not go as deep into games as they used to and do not throw as many pitches, which is one reason wins have fallen. He understands why people question wins as a statistic in the short term. But his broader point is that the macro view still matters: if a pitcher keeps winning over time, he is usually doing the things a starter is supposed to do.
That is the heart of his argument. A win on a random night may not tell the full story, but repeated wins across a career still reflect durability, run prevention and the ability to give a team a chance. Verlander said that if a pitcher is consistently winning baseball games, he is going deep, limiting runs and helping the team win more often than not. In his view, that is not a small detail. It is the larger picture.
What the numbers say about Verlander
The numbers help explain why he feels that way. Verlander has reached 266 victories, and he said he wanted 300 before retirement. He also has 3,554 strikeouts, which puts the discussion in a different category than a short-term debate about one outing. This is someone who has built a career on volume, excellence and staying in games long enough to matter.
His perspective also fits the reality of the modern game. Teams are more cautious, outings are shorter, and historic bids are now managed differently than they were for much of baseball history. That shift may be logical from a risk-management standpoint, but it also changes what fans are allowed to imagine when a pitcher is cruising through six perfect innings.
Verlander is not arguing that every decision should be made with the past in mind. He is arguing that the past still has value, especially when it comes to evaluating starters. For him, wins remain useful because they capture more than a single inning or a single decision. They reflect the full job.
And that is why his view lands with extra force now. He is 43, still speaking like someone who cares about the deepest parts of the craft, and still reminding the sport that some milestones only exist if teams are willing to let pitchers chase them.
