Tigers celebrating Justin Verlander's career with 2-day extravaganza

· Yahoo Sports

The Detroit Tigers are giving a legend his day. Two days, actually.

The Tigers released plans for a two-day celebration of starting pitcher Justin Verlander's career, taking place during two Tigers games against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday, Sept. 25 and Saturday, Sept. 26th, at Comerica Park in Detroit. The celebration includes two giveaways – a Verlander bobblehead for Friday's game and a long-sleeved hooded jersey for Saturday's game.

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Tickets for the game are still available on the Tigers' website, with prices as low as $19 for each day as of Thursday morning.

Verlander, 43, signed with the Tigers ahead of the 2026 season to a one-year, $13 million deal, expecting to play a big role in Detroit's rotation. His year has been tagged by injuries, however, with the Tigers placing him on the injured list after the 21-year veteran made just one start this season in a 9-6 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on March 30.

Verlander has been rehabbing a hamstring strain ever since, facing multiple setbacks before announcing his planned retirement at the end of the season. Still, the three-time Cy Young award winner has been making progress in his rehab and hopes to return to action before the end of the season.

The Tigers haven't indicated whether Verlander will be ready by then, however.

Verlander, the No. 2 overall selection in the 2004 draft, spent his first 13 seasons with the Tigers from 2005-17, establishing himself as one of the game's best pitchers. The Tigers traded him in 2017 to the Houston Astros, where he won a World Series with Houston's then-manager A.J. Hinch, and spent six years with the club before signing with the New York Mets ahead of the 2023 season.

After another stint in Houston and a season spent with the San Francisco Giants in 2025, Verlander returned to Detroit in 2026. He is MLB's active career leader in starts (556), wins (266) and strikeouts (3554), winning one Cy Young award with the Tigers (2011, also the American League MVP) and two more with the Astros (2019, 2022).

A potentially ideal scenario for the Tigers would be for Verlander to start a game on either the 25th or 26th, the first two games of Detroit's final three-game series of the season. The Tigers are currently six games back in the AL wild card chase and have less than a 1% chance to make the playoffs per FanGraphs, meaning the final series may not carry much competitive weight for Detroit.

But with the celebration of one of the franchise's greatest pitchers, it should still be a memorable weekend for Tigers fans.

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You can reach Christian at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Tigers celebrating Justin Verlander's career with 2-day extravaganza

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