Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander brought his grievances with a Detroit reporter to light this week in a big way, and the reporter has made his side of the story public.
Detroit Free Press sports editor Chris Thomas published a story Saturday identifying the root of Verlander’s issue with Tigers beat writer Anthony Fenech. Verlander’s objections are primarily over Fenech’s reporting of what the pitcher felt were private conversations, as well as the handling of a one-on-one interview in September of 2018.
The first issue cited happened in August 2017, just before Verlander was traded from the Tigers to the Astros. Fenech joined a casual clubhouse conversation between Verlander and Tigers icon Al Kaline about the total solar eclipse that month. Fenech posted two tweets quoting Verlander on the topic. The pitcher was unhappy, feeling that the conversation was meant to be private, and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade at Fenech in front of coaches in the dugout the next day. A week later, Verlander gave a terse answer before walking out on a media scrum after Fenech asked multiple questions about a dugout disagreement between Verlander and Victor Martinez.
The major issue appears to have come a year later, when Fenech spoke to Verlander to follow up on a story in which the pitcher claimed the Tigers had misdiagnosed a 2015 injury. Fenech and Verlander sat down for a recorded conversation, but Fenech was told after the interview that Verlander had second thoughts on the necessity of the story and contested one of the quotes as being off-the-record. Fenech gave Verlander his business card in the event the pitcher wanted to clarify a quote before the newspaper’s print deadline. Verlander then accused Fenech of trying to get Verlander’s cell phone number as part of the exchange.
This story was what the Astros’ media department cited to Fenech in mid-May when the team made clear that he would not be granted any interview requests with Verlander. The situation blew up during the week when the Astros refused to allow Fenech into their clubhouse after Wednesday night’s game at the same time as other reporters. The team’s actions were rebuked by MLB and the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
The Free Press ultimately determined after listening to Fenech’s recording of the interview that the reporter’s lone ethical breach was in offering Verlander advice on a proper response to a question about the alleged misdiagnosis. That was not the reason behind Verlander’s accusation of “unethical behavior,” and the newspaper determined that the interview in question was clearly on the record.
Ultimately, it seems that Verlander did not want any part of the injury story once he’d given the interview, but the Free Press published it anyway. If that is an accurate reading of events, it’s hard to blame Fenech or the Free Press in any way.
