'Time has come': Verlander to retire after season
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- Justin Verlander announced Wednesday via social media that he'll retire at season's end, saying 'the game told me it was time' — though injuries limited him to one start this year before he hit the IL with left hip inflammation and then a hamstring strain in a bullpen session.
- Verlander will make his 10th All-Star Game appearance next week after commissioner Rob Manfred named him a Legend Pick — the same honor previously given to Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera (both 2022) and Clayton Kershaw (2025).
- Across 21 MLB seasons, Verlander accumulated 266 wins, 3,554 strikeouts (8th all time) and an 82.3 career WAR, with three Cy Young Awards, two World Series titles with the Astros, and a 2011 MVP — just the 24th pitcher ever to win one.
- Drafted No. 2 overall by the Detroit Tigers in 2004 out of Old Dominion University, Verlander called it 'fitting' that he'd finish in Detroit, the organization he rejoined for 2026 after stints with the Astros, Mets and Giants.
- His 2011 peak (24-5, 2.40 ERA, 250 strikeouts in 251 innings) and 2022 third Cy Young at age 39 — going 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA for another Astros championship team — bookend a resume that ranks among the modern era's best.
- A string of injuries to his shoulder, neck, teres major, chest and hip repeatedly sent Verlander to the IL in recent years, and he said this season 'challenged me in ways I haven't experienced before, both physically and mentally.'
Why it matters: Verlander's exit closes the chapter on one of baseball's last workhorse starters — 266 wins and 3,554 strikeouts across 21 seasons in an era that increasingly restricts starting-pitcher workloads. Detroit fans get a rare full-circle ending with their homegrown icon, while the Legend Pick gives him one last All-Star stage the same week he announces the finish line.
