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New York Mets starting pitcher Justin Verlander looks at the scoreboard as he leaves the field during the eighth inning of the team’s baseball game against the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
QUEENS — Justin Verlander seems to be a bit more open to being traded away from the New York Mets before Major League Baseball’s Aug. 1 deadline after the team dealt Max Scherzer to the Texas Rangers on Sunday.
“A bit surprised with that one,” Verlander said after notching his 250th career win on Sunday afternoon. “To see some of the comments that he made [about waiving his no-trade clause after speaking with team brass] and you wonder, what happened? Because obviously it came together really quickly and I was a bit surprised to see it go down.”
Just five days earlier, Verlander — who signed a two-year deal with the Mets — stood at his locker room inside Yankee Stadium after shutting down the Yankees and said that he was “focused on being a Met. That’s why I signed here. I want to win here. It hasn’t gone according to plan just yet, but I didn’t sign a one-year deal. So there’s that.”
Since then, though, owner Steve Cohen and general manager Billy Eppler have not only sent Scherzer down to Texas, but shipped veteran reliever David Robertson to the Miami Marlins. Both deals yielded prospects for an organization committed to building up its far system.
“When you see that happen, you can’t help but think what’s in store for next year,” Verlander said on Sunday. “We play this game to win and to win a championship… So it changed my opinion a little bit. It was tough to see.”
The 40-year-old future Hall-of-Famer suggested that he will make a decision about waiving his no-trade clause once he gets a clear message from what the Mets are looking to do in…
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