Not to mention that someone has to be the Royals representative, and Perez has been the default pick for a couple of seasons now.Ĭarlos Pérez has played in just 26 games but has already accumulated 0.7 WAR to go along with a. 899 OPS while gearing up nearly every day. It’s not the prettiest of profiles, but not many catchers can post an. It’s been business as usual for Salvador Perezin 2023, displaying his usual all power-no patience-no defense approach for a typically bad Royals team.

Regardless, Rutschman has had a tremendous all-around season so far and is more than worthy of an All-Star spot. 444 slugging percentage ranks only fourth among qualified American League catchers. The only thing you can really nitpick is that he hasn’t hit for much power, as his. He’s raised his average by 31 points and his OPS by 43 points from his already stellar rookie season while using his trademark patience to draw a league-leading 32 walks. In Year Two of the Adley Rutschman Era in Baltimore, the switch-hitting catcher has been everything the Orioles could have hoped for. Our next name on the list might get more attention as the future of the catching position, but to this point, Heim has been the clear best catcher in the American League. 313/.368/.519 and leading all AL catchers in WAR with a 1.6. In his first full season as a starter in 2022, Heim showed flashes of offensive upside with a league-average bat and 16 home runs, but he has taken it to another level this season, slashing. At the heart of this attack is Jonah Heim, who has emerged as one of the best-hitting catchers in all of baseball. The Texas Rangers have been one of the biggest surprises in baseball this year, led by an offense that ranks second in the major leagues in runs scored. Let’s see who made the mid-May American League All-Star team. I tried to make as accurate a roster as possible with 15 bench spots and a pitching staff of 15.Īlright, that’s enough rules.

This is solely a reflection on what the players have done so far, not a projection of what it will look like come July.

I followed the rule that every team has to have at least one representative.

For the most part, I chose the players who were statistically more deserving, but I did factor in popularity and narratives into the decisions as well.

In this article, I’ll take a crack at envisioning what the American League All-Star game roster will look like when the lights turn on in Seattle on July 11. We’re about a month and a half into the MLB season, which means we can finally do one of my favorite activities of the baseball calendar: All-Star game roster projections.

The Extreme Team by Matt Christopher