He played 12 years in Major League Baseball, appearing in 979 games for the Detroit Tigers (1973–1977), Cleveland Indians (1978–1981), New York Mets (1982), and Chicago Cubs (1983–1984).

He batted just .225 with four home runs and 20 RBIs, but his defensive play earned him Appalachian League MVP honors.

"[8] Despite the acclaim, Veryzer began the 1973 season with the Toledo Mud Hens of the International League where he raised his batting average to .250.

[4] With Ed Brinkman at shortstop, Veryzer saw little playing time in 1973; he batted .300 (six for 20) and had an RBI single off the Minnesota Twins' Dave Goltz in his first major league at-bat.

[14] For the season, he batted .252 with five home runs and 48 RBIs (both career highs) while also hitting thirteen doubles to be named the shortstop on the Topps Rookie All-Star team.

[15] He returned healthy in 1977, but a horrible month of May (.093 batting average, five RBIs and two errors on the field) caused him to lose playing time to Mark Wagner and Chuck Scrivener.

Veryzer was dealt to the Cleveland Indians for Charlie Spikes at the Winter Meetings on December 9, 1977,[16] opening the door for Alan Trammell to assume the starting shortstop job in Detroit for the next 16 years.

Tendinitis caused Veryzer to miss two weeks at the start of June,[18] and a month of play in the second half of the 1980 season.

[19] On May 15, 1981, Veryzer made a brilliant play on an Alfredo Griffin ground ball up the middle to record the first out of the day's match-up with the Toronto Blue Jays.

From there, Indians pitcher Len Barker retired the next 26 batters he faced for the first perfect game in the majors since 1968.

[23] With Larry Bowa at short and Ryne Sandberg beginning his Hall of Fame career at second, Veryzer saw very little playing time with the Cubs.

[25] Veryzer played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball, compiling a career batting average of .241, 687 hits, 231 RBIs, and 14 home runs.