Astros: Justin Verlander poised to climb all-time leaderboards

Astros ace Justin Verlander looks to further ascend the all-time leaderboards in 2020.

Justin Verlander ended the 2019 regular season with a bang, becoming the 18th pitcher in major league history to compile 3,000 career strikeouts. He’s amassed an impressive Hall of Fame resume and looks to build on that even further this year, and the Astros ace could make some impressive moves in 2020.

Much of this is dependent on good health, of course. If he makes 33-34 starts, there’s little doubt he’ll find himself moving further into the company of the greatest pitchers to ever take the mound. With that in mind, here are some of the moves he could make on the all-time leaderboards this season.

Strikeouts

Verlander already sits in 18th place on this list and is likely to move up another six spots with a full season. Fergie Jenkins sits in 12th place with 3,192, so there’s only 186 strikeouts separating them. It’s unlikely that Verlander will move past that this season, as it would take 336 strikeouts to catch up to Phil Niekro for 11th place, but that could well happen in 2021.

The names he can pass this season include John Smoltz, CC Sabathia, Curt Schilling, Bob Gibson and Pedro Martinez. With good health, he could easily crack the Top Ten all-time before he’s through, and could possibly end up in the Top Five. Bert Blyleven is fifth with 3,701.

Wins

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Verlander’s 225 wins currently have him in 70th place all-time. Let’s say he wins 20 games this season, which would put him at 245. That would leave him in a tie for 54th place with Dennis Martinez and Jack Powell. Getting to 22 wins would move him into a tie for 50th with Bartolo Colon and Jack Quinn.

It’s certainly a longer climb up this leaderboard, but Verlander is in position to pass guys like Luis Tiant, Whitey Ford, David Wells and Juan Marichal this season. He could be within striking distance of the Top 40 in 2021 and could pass guys like Sabathia and Gibson.

WAR (Wins Above Replacement) for Pitchers

I’m using Baseball-Reference’s version of this stat, and Verlander currently is 30th all-time with 71.4 WAR. There’s a strong chance he moves up to 27th this season, passing Old Hoss Radbourn, Tom Glavine and Jim McCormick.

He could be in a position to pass several Hall of Famers in 2021, including Gibson, Jenkins, Mike Mussina and possibly even Nolan Ryan. It’ll be difficult for him to move into the Top 10 before he retires, but getting into the Top 20 is a distinct possibility.