Who is the most dominant pitcher in Major League Baseball 2022?
Justin Verlander, pitcher for the Houston Astros, is close to winning the Cy Young award for being the most dominant pitcher of the 2022 MLB season.
In the eyes of the world, approaching 40 years of age does not make you a young person unless your first name is Benjamin and your last name is Button. For many, this stage of life is the preparation for the end of the road. However, Justin Verlander is part of the new breed of athletes led by Tom Brady who are making full use of their years of experience blended with the qualities of their physique.
Verlander, at 39 years old, is the most dominant pitcher in the game with an ERA of 1.73, the lowest among the more than fifty pitchers who have started games in the current Major League Baseball season.
No one has achieved more than Verlander’s 15 wins.
Verlander’s stats rise into the realm of the extraordinary when one takes into consideration that in the past two seasons he only pitched in one game due to the Tommy John surgery he needed to repair his pitching elbow.
He underwent the procedure at 37 years old, so it was reasonable to wonder if he would ever pitch again.
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Verlander excels in his age group
Verlander returned to have a unique season among pitchers his age in MLB. The ultimate point of comparison generally used for a pitcher at this stage of life is Randy Johnson and the season he built in 2004. In that season with the Diamondbacks, Johnson started 35 games where he pitched 245 innings with a 2.60 ERA and 9.6fWAR, which leads all pitchers 39 and older in a single season.
At age 39 or older, no one has ever had an ERA lower than 1.73 as Verlander now boasts. If the season ended today, the Astros pitcher would set an MLB record . The current record holder is Roger Clemens, who was 1.87 in 2005, a year in which, interestingly enough, he went on to pitch for the Astros.
Verlander is approaching his third Cy Young Award and he does so with almost 40 years behind him, proving that at that age, you can bounce back from an injury and continue to deliver outstanding performances.
Tonight the nine-time All-Star pitches against the Texas Rangers in search of his 16th win of the season, which will fuel the journey the Astros have embarked on to wrest the top of the American League from the New York Yankees.