Justin Verlander’s retirement announcement closes the book on one of the great pitching careers of this era, and it also brings Houston’s uneasy decision from 2024 into sharper focus.
Verlander said Wednesday that this season will be his last before retiring. He was also named as a Legend Pick to the 2026 All-Star Game, a fitting nod for a pitcher whose résumé already points straight to Cooperstown.
For Astros fans, the news lands with a mix of gratitude and regret. Verlander spent seven seasons in Houston and built a run that stacks up with almost anyone: a 2.71 ERA and two Cy Young awards in an Astros uniform, plus the kind of overall career that makes him an obvious future Hall of Famer. He was one of the defining pitchers of his generation.
But the end in Houston was rough. His final season with the Astros in 2024 was derailed by injuries, and he looked far removed from the dominant force he had been for so long. Even so, he still managed a 5.48 ERA over 90.1 innings before turning in a solid season with the Giants last year.
The retirement itself was not exactly a shock. Verlander’s stuff has faded in recent years, and he has been battling age and injuries along the way. He also hadn’t really been able to get on the field with the Tigers in 2026, and earlier this season he said he felt like the wheels might be falling off, strongly hinting that retirement was coming.
Still, the scale of what he accomplished is hard to overstate. Verlander is finishing with 21 seasons, three Cy Young wins, nine top 5 Cy Young finishes, nine All-Star selections and two World Series titles. There’s not much left to add to that kind of career.
What makes the Astros’ part of the story sting is how clearly 2024 marked the beginning of the end. Everyone knew retirement would come eventually. Houston just ended up seeing it up close before anyone wanted to.
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