The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.The last time I yelled, “YEAH, I GET IT!” this loudly at hearing a metaphor, I was a middle-aged dad watching Toy Story 3.Plus: A Rangers-Angels trade, drama in Philadelphia and Ken Rosenthal examines how Shohei Ohtani’s health could impact Monday’s trade deadline. I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!Beginning of the End: Introducing the post-Skubal Tigers?On Tuesday, Ken reported that one potential path for the Tigers at the trade deadline would be “to acquire a controllable starting pitcher who would replace (Tarik) Skubal in their rotation, along with multiple prospects. That way, the Tigers possibly could remain in contention while ensuring they receive more than the draft pick they would get if they kept Skubal and he left as a free agent.”And as the 51-58 Tigers have slid, that future — the one in which they say goodbye to baseball’s best ace at the trade deadline — seems more and more inevitable.So, last night might have been Skubal’s final start for Detroit. He opened the game with his 1,000th strikeout, and left to a standing ovation.The Tigers led the Orioles 7-1 with two on and two outs in the seventh inning, and with a win, they would overtake Baltimore in the tightly populated encampment of teams just beneath the AL wild-card timber line.Then came the avalanche.After Skubal left, the Tigers collapsed, losing 10-9 in 12 innings. If I may slightly alter a favorite quote from “Tommy Boy (1995)”:One game does not an epitaph make, but as inflection points go, this one had all the timbre of a guttural wheeze after being kicked in the sternum.It was always going to be a tall task to climb out of the hole that injuries and underperformance put the Tigers in during the first three months of the season. But they battled valiantly in June and July to compile a record that would justify not trading Skubal.There was always an invisible deadline, though — one they probably passed a week ago — by which Detroit had to win every game if it wanted the standings to align with its Skubal-keeping hopes.Instead, the Tigers have lost four of their last five. Yesterday, devastating as it was, probably wasn’t the game that sealed Skubal’s farewell. Instead, it felt like a heavy-handed allegory for a future that was already set in motion.More Skubal: Count the Cubs among his potential suitors.More Tigers: The team’s promoting top prospect Max Clark to make his big-league debut. The 21-year-old ranks 13th among Keith Law’s updated top prospects.More outdated movie quotes: Let’s go back to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)” for the Padres, because “They’re not dead!” and, in fact, “They feeeeel happyyyyy!”Middle Relief: Could Ohtani’s injuries sway a Skubal move?Today, Ken examines how the aches and pains of one Shohei Ohtani could impact the Dodgers’ strategy at this year’s trade deadline. Here’s an excerpt. If there is even a .0001 percent chance that Ohtani will not pitch again this season, the chances of the Dodgers admitting it are about the same as a massive snowstorm hitting Miami.