Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros and Ken Giles of the Toronto Blue Jays will be out for the long term due to Tommy John Surgery according to Jameus Mooney of Pro Sports Extra. The announcement of Verlander’s surgery came Saturday and the announcement of Giles’ surgery came on Monday. Verlander, who is one of baseball’s premier starting pitchers, and Giles, who is one baseball’s best closers, are both expected to miss the entire 2021 Major League Baseball season in addition to the remainder of the 2020 season.
Both Verlander and Giles did not pitch much at all in 2020. Verlander of Manakin Sabot, Virginia, only had one start and gave up two earned runs in six innings of work in an 8-2 Houston win over the Seattle Mariners on July 24. Giles meanwhile pitched four games for the Blue Jays and struggled mightily, as he had an earned run average of 9.82 in 3 2/3 innings. In his second game of the season, a 6-5 Blue Jays loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on July 26, Giles significantly struggled with his velocity, and was no where near it was during his sensational 2019 season when he had an outstanding earned run average of 1.87 in 53 games as the Blue Jays closer.
The loss of Verlander for the Astros in the 2020 postseason and into 2021 will be monumental. Last season in 2019, Verlander led Major League Baseball with 223 innings pitched, 21 wins, least number of hits per nine innings (5.5), and WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 0.80. He also won the American League Cy Young Award for the second time in his career and was an all-star for the eighth time. Aces like Verlander do not come around often, and now all of a sudden starting pitching is a weakness for the Astros, when it used to be their strength.
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