The Yankees enter Friday in a tight race with the Orioles in the battle for the top spot in the AL East, while their most recent fiercest rivals, the Astros, are in the basement of the AL West.
But Justin Verlander — who saw the Mets’ disappointment firsthand last season, when the team with giant expectations and an even bigger payroll fell far short of expectations and traded away its stars like Verlander and Max Scherzer — said he doesn’t expect the same fate in Houston.
“You can look at the track record with the same group of guys here,’’ Verlander said of the Astros’ run of success, which includes trips to the ALCS every year since 2017. “The Mets didn’t have that track record. They were good the year before [in 2022], but not for seven years in a row. If you’re looking for a reason to be more hopeful than last year, that’s one thing I could point towards. If anyone can do it, we can.”
The Astros, though, have looked nothing like the team that’s dominated the American League for much of the past decade — other than the fact that Jose Altuve is still putting up good numbers and is the player Yankees fans love to hate as one of the last remaining members of the scandal-scarred 2017 World Series-winning team.
Among the issues is the pitching staff, which entered Thursday with the third-worst ERA in the majors, the second-worst WHIP and the worst WAR, according to FanGraphs.
They’ve dealt with an underperforming bullpen, an injury-stricken rotation, and even Verlander was smacked around Tuesday — giving up seven runs and three homers in one of his ugliest performances in years.
“We’re in the thick of it right now,’’ the right-hander said before the Astros’ 4-3 sweep-avoiding win over the Yankees on Thursday night in The Bronx. “We’ve got to fight it. We have great guys in here, but we need to put it together on the field.”
Despite the bad month, Verlander said he’s not looking to go through a repeat of last year’s trade deadline, when he was shipped to Houston.
“We’re upbeat in here and have the belief we’re gonna turn it around,’’ Verlander said. “We had the same attitude last year [with the Mets]. That didn’t change until Steve [Cohen] decided we were going in a different direction. That stuff is above my pay grade, and I didn’t start to pay attention to all that last year until the dominoes started falling.”
And he’s also aware the Yankees appear to be a more fearsome foe than they were in 2023, when they missed the postseason. He got his first glimpse at the new-look offense this week.
“Those guys let me know I’m not all the way back,’’ said Verlander, who has made four starts since he missed the early part of the season with shoulder inflammation.
“But, look, baseball is better when the Yankees are playing well,” he said. “It’s no secret how great an addition [Juan] Soto is, and with him and [Aaron] Judge, you have two of the best hitters in baseball together, and that’s tough to navigate.”
Verlander also noted how the Yankees’ rotation has withstood the absence of Gerrit Cole, out while rehabbing from elbow inflammation.
“That’s been impressive, how some young guys and others that have been around a little bit have risen to the challenge,’’ Verlander said. “You need a lot of different guys to win, and that’s what we’re trying to get back to.”