{"id":68886,"date":"2024-03-22T12:15:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T16:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=68886"},"modified":"2024-03-22T11:55:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T15:55:17","slug":"astros-justin-verlander-spring-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/22\/astros-justin-verlander-spring-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros\u2019 Justin Verlander Will Not Pitch in Remaining Spring Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander<\/a> will not pitch in any of the Astros remaining games this spring. Manager Joe Espada<\/a> said Thursday that Verlander will not pitch in the Astros\u2019 four remaining Grapefruit League games. That also includes their two exhibition games ahead of Opening Day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Verlander, 41, will start the season on the injured list<\/a> after delays with shoulder soreness. Espada said Verlander is \u201cdoing really well\u201d in his progression, but Houston wants to be \u201csmart\u201d and not rush him back for Opening Day. The three-time Cy Young winner has thrown multiple bullpen sessions and faced live hitters for the first time on Wednesday. Espada said Verlander responded well after throwing 20 pitches in live batting practice on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Justin Verlander Won’t Pitch in Spring Games<\/h2>\n

The Astros\u2019 ace will likely throw another live batting practice or two before the spring ends. Verlander is then expected to head out on a minor league rehab assignment to build up his innings. He will open the season on the 15-day injured list, but assuming he experiences no setbacks in his rehab assignment, Verlander could rejoin Houston\u2019s rotation by the end of April.<\/span><\/p>\n

Verlander<\/span> began the 2023 season with the Mets before being traded back to the Astros at the deadline. He made 27 starts between the two teams, pitching to a 3.22 ERA and a 3.20 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Verlander\u2019s first start of 2023 was delayed by over a month because of a muscle strain in his upper back\/shoulder.<\/span><\/p>\n

No Concerns About Verlander<\/h3>\n

According to Verlander, the \u201chiccup\u201d that set him back a few weeks ago has resolved. He is now taking the time to build himself back up. This was echoed by Astros general manager Dana Brown, <\/span>who told MLB.com<\/span><\/a> that he had \u201cno concerns about Verlander.\u201d Brown confirmed the future Hall of Famer \u201cnever stopped throwing\u201d and is being cautious as he builds back up.<\/span><\/p>\n

Framber Valdez<\/a> will start his third Opening Day for the Astros as they open the season<\/a> against the New York Yankees. Verlander and Valdez will front a Houston rotation that will be without starters <\/span>Jos\u00e9 Urquidy<\/a>, <\/span>Luis Garc\u00eda<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>Lance McCullers Jr.<\/a> until later in the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Houston is looking to return to the World Series after falling to rival Texas Rangers in last year\u2019s American League Championship Series. <\/span>Having Verlander fully healthy going into the postseason should be a top priority for the Astros.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: \u00a9 Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander will not pitch in any of the Astros remaining games this spring. Manager Joe Espada said Thursday that Verlander will not pitch in the Astros\u2019 four remaining Grapefruit League games. That also includes their two exhibition games ahead of Opening Day. Verlander, 41, will start the season on the injured […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":68894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14,1071],"tags":[2359,1731,3911,247,3912,3445,164],"class_list":["post-68886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-astros","category-mlb","tag-framber-valdez","tag-joe-espada","tag-jose-urquidy","tag-justin-verlander","tag-lance-mccullers-jr","tag-luis-garcia","tag-new-york-mets"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}