Daily Jolt: Heat Is on Justin Verlander

The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.

Justin Verlander and the Tigers avoided arbitration Monday, agreeing to a one-year, $3.675 million deal, according to SI.com's Jon Heyman. Now the hard work begins for Verlander.

Last year was an unmitigated disaster for the Tigers. They added All-Stars Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, but instead of returning to the heights they reached in 2006, they slid backwards, finishing behind the Royals and in dead last in the American League Central. Verlander was part of the problem in 2008, but in such a balanced division he can be a big part of the solution in 2009.

Detroit wasn't quite the 1,000-run juggernaut some folks thought it would be in 2008, but after a slow start, the offense wound up as one of the better ones in the AL, finishing fourth in runs, batting average, on-base percentage and slugging.

As is so often the case with lousy teams, pitching held the Tigers back. The bullpen was ineffective and lacked a true anchor, but at least some of that was probably a trickle-down effect from a rotation that featured a hurt and ineffective Willis, suffered through the wretched performance of Nate Robertson and lost Jeremy Bonderman for the season on June 1.

Verlander, for his part, struggled. He did throw 201 innings, but he also posted a 4.84 ERA, and perhaps most distressingly, has lost on average about 2 mph off of the velocity of his fastball.

Kenny Rogers does not appear to be coming back and it's unclear just what kind of production the Willis-Robertston-Bonderman trio will provide. Acquisition Edwin Jackson will provide depth and hopefully some steady innings, but the Tigers are in dire need of an ace to lead them.

Verlander is the most obvious choice to be that guy. He'll turn 26 later this month and just notched his first big payday -- though it certainly doesn't seem like it will be his last. As poorly as Detroit did in 2008, even a middle-of-the-road pitching staff could make it the team to beat in the Central.

Felix Hernandez is not a perfect comparable for Verlander. He's three years younger and has an even more impressive array of pitches in his arsenal. But both pitchers broke into the majors in 2005, both have electric stuff and yet both, at least perception-wise, haven't quite lived up to that stuff at various intervals.

Both also became arbitration eligible for the first time this winter. King Felix will make slightly more than Verlander in 2009 -- roughly $130,000 -- but he won't be facing nearly the same pressure to carry his pitching staff. Seattle is at the start of a massive rebuilding effort. Detroit, even coming off of a last place finish, has one of the largest payrolls in the game and all the expectations that come with it.

Whether it's a big payroll or a big fastball, the expectations are the same -- dominance.

If there's a player whose individual success will have more of a bearing on the fate of his team in 2009 than Verlander, it's hard to think of one. It's time for him to deliver.