Cubs<\/a> at Wrigley Field for win No. 200 in a sparkling career that wouldn\u2019t end until he\u2019d pocketed 219 of them.<\/p>\nAfter that game, veteran reliever Todd Jones posed a question to 23-year-old hotshot Justin Verlander, who\u2019d won the previous day in his Wrigley debut and was on his way, it turned out, to a rookie of the year award and a Game 7 start in that season\u2019s World Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould you take that right now?\u201d Jones wanted to know in regard to the 200 milestone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018No way,\u2019 \u201d Verlander recalled Monday, a day before his fourth \u2014 and potentially last \u2014 career start at Wrigley. \u201cHe basically told me I was an idiot, and, looking back, I agree. But that stubbornness has kind of gotten me where I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where Verlander, 42, is at is the rarified territory of a certain first-ballot Hall of Famer. He has three Cy Young awards, three no-hitters, nine All-Star nods, one MVP and \u2014 more than any other active pitcher \u2014 262 victories and 3,448 strikeouts. The Ks rank him 10th in league history.<\/p>\n
And he could have been a Cub<\/a>. Perhaps should have been a Cub. Definitely wanted to be a Cub.<\/p>\n\u201cI did want that,\u201d he told the Sun-Times. \u201cI tried to come here. I\u2019d always been a fan from afar, loved the organization, loved the ballpark. It was something I definitely tried to push in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was 2017, when the Cubs had a World Series title to defend and were seeking starting pitching to put them over the top. But they balked at Verlander\u2019s contract, which had $28 million on it for each of 2018 and 2019 and a $22 million vesting option for 2020 if he finished in the top five of Cy Young voting for 2019. Instead, the Cubs traded their top two prospects \u2014 Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease \u2014 to the White Sox to land Jose Quintana in July. The following month, the Astros got Verlander in an all-out steal for their Nos. 3, 9 and 11 prospects. It was the Astros who went on to win all the marbles.<\/p>\n