Handing out a two-year, $86.7 million deal to Justin Verlander — who turns 40 in February — might give some teams pause.
But the Mets didn’t hesitate and Verlander insisted he believes he has plenty more in the tank.
It’s why he’s come back from core surgery in 2014 and Tommy John surgery two years ago.
“Why put in all that time and effort and work and sacrifice and sell myself short at the end?” Verlander said during his introductory press conference at Citi Field on Tuesday. “It’s like running a marathon and stopping a mile from the finish line. Maybe I’m 10 miles from the finish line. I don’t know. What, would you do that? That’s my mindset. I feel great. My body feels great. I feel the game will naturally tell me when it’s time to step aside and I feel like I’m nowhere near that point yet.”
And now he’ll join Max Scherzer at the top of a rotation on a team with lofty expectations and a payroll that has soared above $300 million — and possibly $400 million.
Asked about the pressure to deliver in October with those kinds of expectations, Verlander said, “Anytime a good, quality team is put together, there’s pressure to win. Would you rather it be the other way? I don’t think so.”
Clearly, owner Steve Cohen and general manager Billy Eppler agree.
After they saw Jacob deGrom leave for Texas without a second thought, their attention immediately switched to Verlander, who won the American League Cy Young award with the Astros in his first season after Tommy John surgery en route to a World Series title.
Now the Mets are relying on Verlander and Scherzer to lead them to a championship.
The two were teammates with the Tigers earlier in their careers and Verlander said they were working out together this offseason in Jupiter, Fla.
He expects them to both be leaders this season in Queens.
“That’s one thing we probably both learned: I know having healthy competition is great,” Verlander said of his relationship with Scherzer. “How you manage that is important because when you don’t communicate, that can turn into an unhealthy competition. That’s not gonna happen.”
Verlander’s recruitment to New York began with a phone call from Steve Cohen, which Verlander said wasn’t about baseball, but was more about getting to know each other.
Both sides agreed to wait until deGrom settled his contract situation — either with the Mets or elsewhere — before diving into a potential match.
Once deGrom landed with the Rangers, Verlander became the Mets’ top priority.
Verlander was familiar with New York City not only from playing in The Bronx or Citi Field as a visiting player, but from having lived in Battery Park in lower Manhattan for an offseason with his now-wife, Kate Upton, who was also in attendance at Tuesday’s press conference.
The focus from now until October will be the postseason, with no expense spared, evidently, as the Mets payroll — topped by Scherzer and Verlander — continues to rise.
Eppler said he and Cohen didn’t mention a specific number when they were putting together contract offers this offseason.
“We talked about putting the best team we could on the field and let winning drive the decisions we were gonna make,” Eppler said. “With some of the conversations we had, the future does come up and it comes up a lot. But in the here and now, being able to put a club together we feel really good about was important. That was the prevailing conversation.”
Despite the star-studded roster, Verlander knows there are no guarantees.
“The longer I play the game, I’ve realized you can’t take anything for granted,” Verlander said of the outsized expectations. “We had some incredible teams in Houston that weren’t able to get it done. … Hopefully the more you have it happen, you learn from your mistakes.”