Right-hander Justin Verlander completed a 69-pitch rehab outing Friday for Double-A Binghamton and could be in line to make his New York Mets debut next week against the Detroit Tigers.
Verlander, who opened the season on the injured list with a teres major strain near his right armpit, went 4 2/3 scoreless innings for the Rumble Ponies. He allowed two hits with no walks and six strikeouts.
“We’ll see how he recovers,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said. “So far, so good.”
The outing came after Verlander threw 43 pitches in a live batting-practice session on Sunday at the Mets’ facility in Port St. Lucie, Fla.
The 40-year-old is tracking to potentially make his first start Wednesday at Detroit, where he spent his first 13 pro seasons. The expectation heading into Friday’s start was for Verlander to make one rehab start, but Showalter indicated afterward the team remains flexible and is not committing either way yet.
“I don’t know until we get our arms around and see how he feels tomorrow about where we see, I’m not going to really project,” Showalter said. “But I don’t want to get too far ahead up until we get a chance to talk to Justin. There’s probably some things he’ll say to us that he may not have said in the postgame interview.”
Signed to a two-year, $86.7 million contract, Verlander is coming off one of the best seasons of his career after helping the Houston Astros win the World Series.
Verlander went 18-4 and posted a career-best 1.75 ERA across 28 starts last season to win his third Cy Young Award.
His 244 career wins are the most among active players, and his 3,198 strikeouts are second among active pitchers to teammate Max Scherzer, a fellow three-time Cy Young winner who has 3,210. They rank 12th and 13th on the all-time strikeouts list.
New York’s rotation is missing Jose Quintana (broken left rib) and Carlos Carrasco (right elbow inflammation).
Max Scherzer is serving a 10-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s prohibitions on foreign substances. Barring rainouts, he is eligible to return Monday.
ESPN’s Joon Lee, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.