San Francisco Giants Star Pitcher Reaching Elite Plateau Seems Unrealistic

Will a new addition for the San Francisco Giants be able to reach his lofty career goals?

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 Spring Training starting up for the San Francisco Giants, the franchise will be hoping that they can turn things around in 2025.

For the past several years, the Giants have been stuck in mediocrity in the National League. This offseason, despite adding a couple of notable free agents, it’s hard to say that the team has improved overall.

In the batting order, the addition of Willy Adames will help strengthen a lineup that has been lackluster for many years. The hope is that the slugging shortstop will be able to help provide some pop for a team that has been bad in that category for many years.

However, while the addition of Adames will help the lineup, the team saw starting pitcher Blake Snell leave in free agency.

The southpaw might have gotten off to a slow start with San Francisco in the first half of the season, but he was light out in the second half of the campaign.

Even though the Giants made a hard push for Corbin Burnes in free agency, they ultimately missed out on the former Cy Young to replace Snell.

San Francisco did pivot and add another starter in the form of a future Hall of Famer, but that addition has some concerns.

Alden Gonzalez of ESPN.com recently spoke about Justin Verlander’s desire and belief that he can reach 300 wins.

“He will begin the season 38 wins shy of 300 career victories, a number that seems unreachable in an era when starting pitchers don't hold up the way they used to. It's a clearly stated goal -- one Verlander says he believes he can make some serious ground on...”

While there is no denying the success of Verlander throughout his career, the veteran right-hander is now on the wrong side of 40 years old and is coming off the worst year of his career.

Injuries likely played a part in the struggles of Verlander in 2024 with the Houston Astros, but at his age, staying healthy for an entire season is no easy task.

The future Hall of Famer seems to have his eyes set on the elusive 300-win plateau, but that is going to be a stretch.

To start the season, Verlander is going to be 42 years old and is 38 wins away from 300. In 2023, which was his last somewhat full season, he was able to win 13 games. When doing some simple math, that would be three years of reaching that number to hit his goal.

While the Giants will be hoping that Verlander will be a pitcher that can win double-digit games for them in 2025. However, him reaching the 300-win mark feels very unrealistic at this point in his career.