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Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander has gotten off to an incredible start to the 2022 MLB season, looking to be in peak Cy Young form through his team's first 32 games. Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that the Astros hurler hasn't pitched in a full season since 2019 due to Tommy John surgery. However, if you ask New York Yankees ace and former teammate Gerrit Cole, nothing has changed with Verlander. In fact, Cole hilariously sees the same ‘old race car' with one very important change, as reported by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
“It’s like they just put a new set of tires on the same old race car. It’s great to watch.”
Cole likened Verlander's hot start to the 2022 MLB season to an old race car receiving the boost of a shiny new set of tires. It's a hilarious, yet accurate, comparison.
Verlander, 39, certainly isn't getting any younger, though his pitching seems to be aging just fine. Through six starts, the Astros righty owns a 1.55 ERA, 0.63 WHIP and 36:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 40 2/3 innings pitched.
However, the arm and the elbow have been just as lethal as they were before his surgery, as Verlander has been pumping fastballs at an average speed of 94.6 MPH on the radar gun, right around his career average. Kind of like an old car with new tires.
Plus, Cole would know a thing or two about the ‘old race car,' as the Yankees ace was teammates with Verlander on the Astros when he won the 2019 Cy Young award and finished second in the 2018 voting.
If you ask Cole, the ‘old race car' is running just fine.
