Justin Verlander’s path back to the mound for the Tigers is still alive, and A.J. Hinch says the latest checkpoint looks better than the ones before it.
Before Detroit’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, Aug. 28, Hinch said Verlander recently threw off a slope, a progression the manager described as “close to a bullpen.”
"It's hard to tell the people what it means, other than it's a step further than playing catch,” Hinch said.
That’s the clearest sign yet that Verlander is moving forward after a season filled with interruptions. The 43-year-old has been trying to work his way back since suffering a hamstring strain, and Hinch said Friday that Verlander was “encouraged as I've ever heard him” in their conversation.
“I sense that he is building towards something positive and that he's going to be able to make at least one appearance,” Hinch said. “I'm sure he wants multiple to cap what is going to be a historic career. But right now we aren't to the point where we can pencil anything in, and I would guess even when we can, we're going to wait an extra time just to not have another setback like we have the last few times.”
The update came a month after Hinch’s previous one on July 25, when he said Verlander’s rehab was still “really slow” but that the Tigers remained committed to getting him back on the mound in 2026.
Verlander’s season has been defined by stop-and-start recovery. He made just one start, on March 30 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, before going on the injured list five days later with left hip inflammation. Since then, he’s dealt with setbacks in bullpen work and in three minor league rehab outings, including his last appearance on June 10 for Triple-A Toledo.
His lone start of the year was rough, too. He allowed five earned runs in 3⅔ innings in Arizona.
Verlander later made clear how frustrated the process had become.
"I've always said that I want to play until the wheels fall off,” Verlander said June 19 after being scratched from a planned start at Comerica Park for the Tigers on June 21. “Maybe they are falling off.
I hope not. ... If I can't be healthy, and I continue to prove that I can't be healthy, that's something that I have to really evaluate.”
A few weeks after that, Verlander announced this season would be his last.
Even with that retirement announcement, the Tigers still expect him to pitch for them in 2026. Verlander signed a one-year, $13 million deal in February, returning to the team that selected him No. 2 overall in the 2004 MLB Draft out of Old Dominion. He was a key part of Detroit’s run to the 2006 World Series and pitched for the Tigers from 2005-17 before later winning World Series titles with Houston in 2017 and 2022.
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