The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.Justin Verlander is going to be an All-Star, but that’s burying the lede: He’s also retiring after this year.Plus: Losing a no-hitter is pretty easy to do, the Rays have stopped walking hitters and Ken Rosenthal has a note on a draft bust that (eventually) went boom. I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!Legendary: Verlander will retire an All-StarThe first announcement wasn’t entirely unexpected: As part of the Commissioner’s “Legend Pick,” Justin Verlander would be an All Star for the 10th time in his career. Not long after the All-Star nod, Verlander posted some additional news on social media: This season will be his last. I suppose that’s not a huge surprise, either. Verlander is 43 years old, after all. He’s the oldest active player in the four major North American sports. He has outrun the finish line for longer than most, but nobody evades the end forever.But he sure did try. Two Cy Youngs after the age of 35? Not even Nolan Ryan did that.And in his media availability, Verlander alluded to a desire to come back this year from his second injury, a hamstring strain that piggybacked on a hip issue, limiting him to one start thus far.This year was meant to be a homecoming — a victory lap with the Tigers team that drafted him in 2004, before the Astros², Mets or Giants years. Detroit was also supposed to be a contender this year. Its season is now on life support, if not entirely dead.But the opportunity for a storybook ending still technically exists, even if by the thinnest of margins.One thing that seems certain, however: Verlander will come up short of 300 wins (he’s at 266) and 4,000 strikeouts (he’s at 3,554, good for eighth all-time). The last player to 300 wins was Randy Johnson, back in 2009.As Tyler Kepner muses: If Verlander isn’t getting to 300 wins, it seems likely that nobody ever will again. Even his younger contemporaries recognize they’re now playing a different game entirely.But Verlander didn’t ask to be the avatar of the death of an era. (Neither did Max Scherzer, who hasn’t announced a damn thing, by the way.) He was just extremely good at what he did, for long enough to be an all-time great.Middle Relief: What a great draft pick (eventually)Today, we have an excerpt from Ken’s latest column, which features a lot of trade deadline reporting, but also this fun nugget: When the Tampa Bay Rays pick second in the amateur draft that begins Saturday, it will be their highest selection since they chose shortstop Tim Beckham with the first pick in 2008.