Welcome to The Pregame Lineup, a weekday newsletter that gets you up to speed on everything you need to know for today’s games, while catching you up on fun and interesting stories you might have missed. Today's newsletter is brought to you by David Adler.

For more than two decades, Justin Verlander has dominated the Major Leagues. Now one of the greatest pitchers of his generation is hanging up his spikes.

Verlander will retire at the end of this season, wrapping up what is sure to be a Hall of Fame career. The three-time Cy Young Award winner made the announcement today. 

"I never wanted to retire because of a milestone, a number, or a date on the calendar," Verlander posted on social media. "I wanted the game to tell me when it was time. Over the last several months, I've realized that time has come."

The Tigers legend will finish his career where it all began -- in Detroit. Verlander returned to the Tigers this season after spending his first 12 1/2 seasons with the team, which drafted him second overall in 2004. 

The All-Star Game will be the start of Verlander's farewell tour. Verlander was named to the American League All-Star team today as a "Legend Pick." He's following other iconic players who were named All-Star Legend Picks at the end of their careers, like Clayton Kershaw last season and Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera in 2022. 

Verlander, who started the All-Star Game in both 2012 and 2019, won't pitch in this year's game -- he's currently on the injured list -- but he'll be in Philadelphia next week and will be honored during the All-Star festivities. 

The 43-year-old is one of the defining pitchers of this century, along with Kershaw and Max Scherzer. Verlander has done it all in a 21-year Major League career with the Tigers, Astros, Mets and Giants that began in 2005. He's won every award there is to win. He's won the World Series. He's in the 3,000-strikeout club. 

Few pitchers in baseball history have a career résumé like Verlander's. Verlander is one of 11 pitchers with at least three Cy Young Awards -- a list that is only all-time greats -- winning in 2011 with the Tigers and in 2019 and 2022 with the Astros. In that 2011 season, Verlander also became one of the few pitchers to be named MVP. He even won the pitching Triple Crown, leading the American League with 24 wins, a 2.40 ERA and 250 strikeouts.

Verlander has collected all three major awards that a pitcher can win -- MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year, which he earned with Detroit in 2006. The only other pitcher to win all three of those is Don Newcombe. With this year's Legend selection, Verlander is also a 10-time All-Star, tied for second most among active players behind only Mike Trout. And he has two World Series rings, taking home championships with the Astros in 2017 and 2022.

Verlander is also MLB's active leader in wins, with 266, and strikeouts, with 3,554, a mark that ranks eighth all-time. He's thrown three no-hitters, one of only six pitchers to do so.

Tigers beat reporter Jason Beck reflects on Verlander's legendary career here >> 

The Home Run Derby bracket is halfway full. 

Two new sluggers announced their participation in the 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby today: Jac Caglianone and Willson Contreras. 

Caglianone and Contreras will join Ben Rice and Junior Caminero in the Derby in Philadelphia on Monday, leaving four of the eight players still to be announced. You can keep track of the Home Run Derby contestants here. 

• 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby: July 13, 8 p.m. ET (live on Netflix)

Caglianone, who has 14 homers this year, has some of the biggest raw power in the Majors. Sounds like the perfect Home Run Derby contestant to us. 

The Royals' 23-year-old slugger has the chance to become the youngest Derby winner in history (so does Caminero, who just turned 23). Juan Gonzalez currently holds that mark -- the Rangers star was 23 years, 265 days old when he won the 1993 Home Run Derby. Caglianone will be 23 years, 154 days old on Monday.

The Royals have never had a Home Run Derby winner. But their last participant came close: Bobby Witt Jr., who's the AL's starting shortstop for this year's All-Star Game, smacked 50 total dingers and finished as the runner-up to Teoscar Hernández in 2024.

Contreras could become the second Red Sox player to win a Derby, after Boston legend David Ortiz won the home run hitting contest in 2010. 

Contreras, who was added to the AL All-Star team yesterday -- his fourth career All-Star nod -- has hit 20 home runs this season. 

Yankees at Rays (6:40 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime Video / MLB.TV) 

A few years ago, this would've been a duel of AL Cy Young contenders: Gerrit Cole vs. Shane McClanahan. But in 2026, it's a duel of pitchers trying to get back to that old level. That still makes for an intriguing matchup -- especially with the Yankees and Rays fighting for AL East supremacy. Tampa Bay still holds a four-game lead over New York after splitting the first two games of this four-game series.

Mariners at Marlins (6:40 p.m. ET, MLB.TV) 

The Marlins keep winning. They just reached the 50-win mark for the season after walking off the AL West-leading Mariners in yesterday's series opener. Miami sits in the third NL Wild Card spot at 50-42 and has been the best team in the Majors since the start of June.

Phillies at Reds (7:10 p.m. ET, ESPN)

The Reds send Chase Burns to the mound for his final start before the breakout righty heads to his first career All-Star Game. He'll be facing a dangerous lineup led by MLB home run leader Kyle Schwarber as well as fellow All-Stars Bryce Harper and Brandon Marsh, who are representing the host Phils at the Midsummer Classic.

Shohei Ohtani hit his 300th MLB home run last night. MLB researcher extraordinaire Sarah Langs has all the cool facts and figures about Ohtani reaching the milestone, but here are three of the best ones: 

1) Ohtani hit his 300th home run in just his 1,101st career game as a hitter (aka, he had at least one plate appearance … we're not counting the games where he only pitched). By that standard, he's the fifth-fastest hitter to reach the 300-homer mark, after Aaron Judge (953 games), Ralph Kiner (1,086), Ryan Howard (1,091) and Juan Gonzalez (1,093). 

2) Shohei is one of 170 players with at least 300 career home runs. Eight of those players have recorded at least one strikeout as a pitcher. That's actually more than we would've thought, but it's true. Anyway … Ohtani's 765 pitching K's are by far the most of any player in the 300-home run club -- he dwarfs Ruth (501 K's), Jimmie Foxx (11), Dave Kingman (four), Rocky Colavito (two), Ted Williams (one), Gary Gaetti (one) and Anthony Rizzo (one very memorable one).

3) No. 300 was a leadoff home run for Ohtani, the 31st of his career and his 25th since joining the Dodgers. Only one other player in MLB history has hit a leadoff home run to get to the 300 milestone: Steve Finley, who did it on June 14, 2006.  

Read the rest of the cool facts about Ohtani's 300th home run here >>

There was a lot of fun baseball around the Majors yesterday, including some crazy games and aces galore.

• To get the wackiness started: Brewers star Jackson Chourio turned around and batted lefty while facing a position player pitcher at the end of Milwaukee's blowout win over the Cardinals. Chourio is not a switch-hitter. But he hit the ball 360 feet!

• The Royals beat the Mets in a wild 16-12 affair that featured, among other things, a Carson Benge Little League home run on a tapper back to the mound and Royals speedster Tyler Tolbert tying the MLB record with hits in 12 consecutive plate appearances.

• Tarik Skubal was dominant again as the trade rumors swirl around him. The Tigers ace beat the A's with five innings of one-run, nine-strikeout baseball. No one knows how many more games Skubal might pitch as a Tiger, but the Detroit faithful is savoring every start.

• Paul Skenes got his first win in 10 starts -- hard to believe, we know -- by shutting down the NL East-leading Braves. Skenes hadn't won a game since May 12 against the Rockies, and the Pirates had somehow lost nine straight contests with their All-Star ace on the mound.

• Jacob Misiorowski showed once again why he's an All-Star and a Cy Young favorite, striking out 11 against the Cardinals to raise his Major League-leading total to 167. Miz brought the heat as usual, recording six K's on fastballs at 102 mph or faster, including one at 104 mph.

• Zack Wheeler isn't an All-Star, but he's sure pitching like one. Wheeler took out his All-Star snub on the Reds yesterday with a career-high-tying 14 K's. The Phillies ace is now 9-1 with a 2.28 ERA and 98 strikeouts in 14 starts this season.

The first wave of All-Star roster replacements came in yesterday. 

First, Red Sox catcher Willson Contreras joined the AL roster in place of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who will miss the All-Star Game to rest his ailing lower back. 

A trio of pitchers were added to the NL roster as well -- the Pirates' Braxton Ashcraft, the Phillies' Jesús Luzardo and the Cardinals' Riley O'Brien. They're replacing Jacob Misiorowski, Max Meyer and Paul Skenes, respectively, who will all be unavailable to pitch in the game next Tuesday. 

Keep track of the All-Star replacements here >> 

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