Astros: Why isn’t the Justin Verlander deal official yet?

The Houston Astros agreeing to keep Justin Verlander is old news at this point but, now that the MLB lockout is upon us, why isn’t the deal official?

After a slew of big MLB free agency moves throughout the league at the end of November, the league is now at the start of what could be a long, arduous lockout. For the most part, though, the mad dash was for teams to make contracts official before the looming lockout. The Houston Astros, however, were not one of those teams.

One of the first big dominoes to fall in free agency was Justin Verlander, on the heels of an impressive showcase outing in front of numerous MLB teams, who re-signed with the Houston Astros on a two-year deal.

As the lockout became official, though, the Verlander deal was not on the transactions log, the pitcher was not listed on the Astros’ 40-man roster, and there were no indications that the two-year, $50 million deal was made official.

Astros Justin Verlander deal: Why isn’t it official yet?

The truth of the matter, though, is that we don’t know why the Justin Verlander deal with the Astros was not made official for the lockout.

There are obviously a number of reasons as to why that could be the case but, the one certainty is that the contract is now in limbo until the lockout is over, whenever that might be (Spoiler: It could be a long time).

If there’s good news, though, it’s that there is no indication that the deal is in jeopardy. Whenever the time comes, it should be made official. All that being said, it’s reasonable that the deal not being official yet would send up some alarm bells and, frankly, is still worth monitoring going forward.