San Francisco Giants Cy Young Winner Expected to Bounce Back from Down Year

Will a future Hall of Famer bounce back for the San Francisco Giants after perhaps the worst season of his professional career?

Feb 13, 2025; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Justin Verlander (35) watches players work out in the bullpen during spring training camp. | Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

With the start of the regular season coming up quickly for the San Francisco Giants, the franchise will be hoping that their offseason moves pay dividends during the year. 

Due to the massive shift in the front office just prior to the offseason, there was a lot of uncertainty about what the plan would be for the Giants this winter. 

With a desire to cut payroll a touch, they were able to accomplish that. However, they might not have improved the team compared to last season, which is a concern. 

San Francisco only made two notable signings this season. They brought in slugging shortstop Willy Adames from the Milwaukee Brewers, and they also signed future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander. 

The addition of Verlander comes after the team lost Blake Snell to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and also saw free agent target Corbin Burnes sign with the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

While improving the lineup was important to accomplish, the starting rotation feels like it took a significant step in the wrong direction. 

Joel Reuter of Bleacher Report recently wrote about the expectations being high for the star right-hander heading into his first season with the Giants. 

At 42 years old, it is hard to predict what Verlander has left in the tank. However, with him signing a one-year deal with San Francisco, both sides clearly believe that he can be a positive contributor to the team. 

The 2024 campaign was a challenging one for the right-hander. He dealt with injuries for a good part of the season and just never seemed to find his groove. At his age, coming back from injuries is not going to be easy, and it seemed to really affect him when he was on the mound. 

Last season, he totaled a 5-6 record, 5.48 ERA, and didn’t reach the 100-innings pitched mark. 

While his last campaign was a really poor one, he did pitch well in 2023 with the New York Mets and Houston Astros. There is certainly a scenario in which the struggles from last year were completely because of injury and not a sign of decline. 

However, bouncing back from an injury-plagued season at 42 years old is going to be a challenging task for Verlander. 

With the desire to reach the 300-win plateau, he is going to need to string together some impressive seasons in order to reach the mark. 

While expectations might be high for the veteran right-hander, it is impossible to predict whether he will be a positive contributor to the team in 2025.