September is here and the last day of August in baseball is basically a second trade-deadline before rosters expand for the final month of the season. There have been several notable trades made but none is more talked about than the Detroit Tigers sending Justin Verlander to the Astros. The 34-year old right-hander was being swirled around the trade rumor air for most of the season considering the Tigers are setting the course for a rebuild, and now it has finally happened.

The Astros themselves had some criticism thrown their way when they did not make any major pitching moves at the July deadline so this move makes a lot of sense.

While the Cubs were in on Verlander and in discussion with the Tigers, it was clear that the two teams were not on the same page even though Verlander said he would like to have gone to Chicago. Initially, it looked like the deal to send him to the Astros was declined by Verlander but it was eventually worked out right before the August deadline.

Verlander's resume and strange year

Justin Verlander has been a household name in baseball for the past decade. He was both the Cy Young and MVP in 2011 going 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA, 0.920 WHIP, 250 strikeouts and 2.99 Fielding Independent Pitching in 251.0 innings.

He dominated for many years being an All Star six times which included a five-consecutive All Star nods from 2009 through 2013, he totaled a 3.05 ERA and 1,194 strikeouts during that time. He had an off year in 2014 and only pitched in 133.1 innings in 2015 which made many to believe he was past his prime.

Last year he rebounded and came second in Cy Young voting with a 3.04 ERA and 254 strikeouts in 227.2 innings pitched.

In 2013 he signed a huge extension with the Tigers in which he would make $28 million per-year from 2015-2019 guaranteed with a 2020 option of guaranteed $22 million if he was top-five in Cy Young voting in 2019.

This year has been very odd for him. He started off very poorly in the first half sporting a 4.73 ERA and 1.52 WHIP, and once again it seemed like Verlander was slowing down with much money still owed to him.

In the second half, he has been more like himself boasting a 2.41 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 10.43 K/9 ratio. This likely made suitors more interesting in him again with just the matter of finding the right deal with the main issue being who was willing to eat a big portion or all of his massive salary.

Tigers relief

The Astros gave the Tigers a handful of prospects and will be eating a good chunk of his salary. The Tigers get Dez Cameron, Franklin Perez and Jake Rogers in the prospect package from the Astros. Perez (19) was the number three prospect in the Astros farm, Cameron (20) was the number nine prospect (also the son of former MLB star Mike Cameron), and Rodgers (22) was their number 11 prospect.

According to MLB Pipeline, Franklin Perez, a right-handed pitcher, is the #46 ranked prospect by MLB in baseball. In the end, the Astros get a controlled veteran arm with an impressive resume who can help their inevitable postseason appearance and the Tigers shed a lot of money and get young talented prospects in a rebuild.

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