Why did the Houston Astros leave Justin Verlander off of their Wild-Card Series roster?

That the Astro’s starting pitcher has been left off of the postseason roster may seem surprising at first glance, but when one considers the context in which the decision has been taken, it becomes more understandable.

Justin Verlander has had a tough time of late

On Tuesday, the Houston Astros released their roster for their American League wild-card series against the Detroit Tigers and it was immediately clear that a household name was missing, that of starting pitcher Justin Verlander. To that end, the earliest fans can see the 41-year-old would be in the AL Division Series, should the Astros make it that far.

Now, where context is concerned, it’s got to be said that Verlander has struggled lately. Indeed, prior to the neck injury that sidelined him back in June, he had an ERA of almost 4.00. As we know, the injury saw him miss two months of the season before he finally returned on August 19th. Since that time, things have been even worse with the seven starts that he’s had seeing him produce an 8.10 ERA.

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To be fair to Verlander, some of that ERA was contributed to by the terrible starts that he had during September which included the eight runs that he conceded against the Arizona Diamondbacks on September 8th and the six that he gave up when playing the Los Angeles Angels on September 21st. This is all to say that Verlander’s omission appears to make sense and even more so when taking a look at the Astro’s roster which ranks as the sixth-best in MLB with a collective ERA of 3.74.

At this point, one has to assume that should the Astros progress to the ALDS, they will have need of Verlander’s arm. Of course, that will be affected by how many games they play in the coming wild-card series as that in itself will determine which pitchers need relief. Until that time, like Verlander, we can only watch and wait.