3 teams Yankees can blame for Astros’ sustained dominance

2. Detroit Tigers

The Yankees can also blame themselves here … because why wouldn’t they make this trade after being starved for pitching help for so many years? Regardless, the Detroit Tigers gifted one of the best pitchers of this generation to the Astros for minor league pitcher Franklin Perez, minor league outfielder Daz Cameron, and minor league catcher Jake Rogers in 2017.

They traded a future Hall of Famer for nothing. As a result, MLB banned the waiver trade deadline (the trade happened on Aug. 31 of that year!), Verlander ended up experiencing one of the most notable career resurgences of all time, and he single-handedly kept the Yankees from advancing to the World Series that year (two ALCS starts, 0.56 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 21 strikeouts in 16 innings).

Across his parts of five seasons in Houston, the right-hander is 51-18 with a 2.43 ERA, 0.84 WHIP and 721 strikeouts in 87 starts (559.1 innings). Sickening. Absolutely sickening.

And SOMEHOW, after making just one start across the 2020 and 2021 seasons due to Tommy John surgery, Verlander is 8-3 with a 2.30 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in 13 starts this year. It quite literally will not end.

Maybe the MLB-best Yankees can put him in his place during this weekend series.