Justin Verlander Said He Accepted Invite to Baseball Plant at All-Star Break But Never Heard Back
By Jerry Trotta
It's quite obvious that Major League Baseball deployed juiced balls during the regular season, and this news is only going to support that largely popular notion.
Justin Verlander, who has voiced his frustrations with the concept on several occasions throughout the 2019 campaign, was apparently invited to MLB's baseball plant around the All-Star break to gain more insight into the evolving theory. As expected, he promptly accepted the invite.
It would appear, however, that the former Cy Young might not get his wish after all as he claimed on Thursday that the league has yet to get back to him since he responded.
Verlander said MLB said they’d let him visit the baseball plant during the All Star Break. He said yes. “I never heard back.”
— Laura Albanese (@AlbaneseLaura) October 17, 2019
We seriously need some footage of Verlander's face when he delivered this quote because we don't doubt for a second that he was strikingly disconcerted.
It also brings up the question of whether the MLB has removed juiced balls for the postseason. Commissioner Rob Manfred has yet to disclose the apparent truth, despite what all fans believe to be legitimate.
Why sanction juiced balls for the regular season, extract them for the playoffs, and then top it all off by not following through on the invite you sent to your league's most disgruntled player regarding the matter?
Maybe MLB should just embrace the whole juiced ball thing and each stadium employs like a ball sommelier (ballmelier) who chooses the perfect set of balls for any particular occasion.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 15, 2019
That's quite simply the definition of shady and proves that Manfred will continue to remain distant and table the discussion.