Houston – As he sat with Kate Upton, his fiancé at the time, in his condo in Birmingham, with two Tigers’ front office executives waiting for his decision outside in a car and with Astros president and general manager Jeff Luhnow waiting by his phone for the same decision, Justin Verlander was thinking about the fans.
He had no real concerns about waiving his no-trade clause to allow the Tigers to trade him to the Astros. Baseball-wise, it was a no-brainer. He’d be going from a rebuilding team to a championship contender. His concern was how his decision would play to Tigers nation.