If I had said I wanted to be with Valandar ten years ago, they would have thought I was crazy... Even the top ace of ML is shivering, there's a legend right in front of me.

[TUSER PARABOLA= Kim Jin-sung, reporter] "If I had said I wanted to be with him 10 years ago... I would have said he was crazy.

The current top ace in Major League Baseball, Tarik Skubal (30, Detroit Tigers). He has won the American League Cy Young Award for two consecutive years. Additionally, he recently submitted a 32 million dollar salary request, surpassing the 19 million dollar offer from Detroit, causing a big stir.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (28, Los Angeles Dodgers) is expected to break the record for the highest contract in baseball history (12 years, $325 million). Scutbale is expected to become a free agent after this season. It seems difficult for Detroit to continue affording Scutbale's value. The trade rumors about the Los Angeles Dodgers continue to circulate.

Just before Scubal is about to leave Detroit, his new teammate has attracted attention as being very special. "Legend" Justin Verlander (43). Verlander recently signed a one-year contract worth $13 million with his former team Detroit.

Made his debut in Detroit in 2005, and played for 13 seasons until he was traded to the Houston Astros in the 2017 season. He played for the New York Mets, then Houston, and last year he played for the San Francisco Giants of Lee Jung-ho. The return to Detroit is the first in 9 years.

Has a 266-158 record with a 3.22 ERA in 555 career Major League games, and has struck out 3,553 batters in 3,567 2/3 innings. He has won the American League Rookie of the Year, three American League Cy Young Awards, one American League Most Valuable Player during the regular season, and has been selected to the All-Star team nine times.

No matter how much he is a "scuba diver," it's impossible not to feel something special about eating together with such a legend. He said on MLB.com on the 13th (Korean time), "I want to do everything that Verlander has done. It would be really cool to become a locker mate with him."

Meanwhile, Scubba said, "What I mean is, if 10 years ago I had said that I wanted to be a teammate of Blanda and Locker in the same starting rotation, they would have said I was crazy. It's pretty cool. I get chills now. If you look at his career, I could probably talk for another 30 minutes about the impact he has on me."

Detroit's new ace will now start to eat together in the same pot. It is also interesting to see what inspiration Skubal will gain from Verlander. Verlander has clearly shown a decline in performance over the past one or two years. His pitch control and consistency in game performance have become noticeably unstable. However, he still maintains competitiveness comparable to regular pitchers, so Skubal might feel something from that.

Scully said, "Vander? Justin? That was my first question. Then I wanted to learn a little more about him. Whether you like baseball or not, you spend a lot of time with your teammates. You spend more time with these players than your family. Baseball will naturally happen."

Also, Scuba said, "He gives me a kind of hint. It will definitely affect many people here. Just by his presence."

If I had said I wanted to be with Valandar ten years ago, they would have thought I was crazy... Even the top ace of ML is shivering, there's a legend right in front of me.

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