A midsummer classic problem: Getting the best All-Star pitchers to commit to the game
There seems to be even more tension this year in the push-and-pull between putting on the best possible show on baseball’s biggest midsummer stage and prioritizing health and winning.
ATLANTA — Zack Wheeler and Jacob deGrom arrived in the majors 11 months apart as teammates with the Mets, and more than 10 years later, they remain close.
How close?
“This past week,” deGrom said Monday, “we probably talked four times, I would say.”
OK, so that isn’t typical for them. Sometimes, they will go a week or two, then randomly pick up the phone. But like all old friends, they never stray too far.
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They could’ve had a full-fledged reunion this week at the 95th All-Star Game. Wheeler, the Phillies’ ace, got the second-highest vote total of any National League pitcher on the players’ ballot; deGrom, healthy and enjoying a revival for the Rangers, got the fifth-highest vote total among American League pitchers.
But both started Saturday and chose to say no thanks to pitching in the All-Star Game. They weren’t alone. Of the 24 pitchers who were initially selected, 11 were replaced, most citing insufficient rest after their most recent start.
It happens every year. Last year, 11 players (six pitchers) were replaced. In 2023, it was 13 players (10 pitchers). Next year, as sure as the All-Star Game will be played in Philadelphia, some of the best pitchers in the sport will get selected and choose not to participate.
“I want to know how you remedy that,” Braves ace Chris Sale said. “If [Tarik] Skubal was pitching on Sunday, say, you’re telling me the Tigers are going to skip his start so he can pitch in the All-Star Game? At the end of the day, the ultimate goal is winning the World Series.
“It’s a tough limbo. Yeah, you want to showcase your best guys in this game. These fans come out for us, and this is for the fans and they deserve that. But at the same time, you don’t want to take away from a specific player helping his team.”
Sure, but there seems to be even more tension this year in the push-and-pull between putting on the best possible show on baseball’s biggest midsummer stage and prioritizing health and winning.
Because among the pitchers who were replaced, only four started Sunday in the last games before the All-Star break. Six started Saturday and decided against pitching one inning, or even facing a batter, on two days’ rest.
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The Phillies left no doubt where they stand. Ranger Suárez and Cristopher Sánchez were worthy of being All-Stars, but neither got selected by the players in the initial balloting process. When MLB asked if they were interested in being added to the roster, Suárez declined despite starting last Friday and Sánchez understandably wouldn’t pitch on one day’s rest after starting Sunday in San Diego.
It’s no coincidence that among the pitchers named by MLB as replacements, two last pitched on Wednesday, one on Thursday, and three on Friday. Tigers righty Casey Mize agreed to participate even though he pitched Saturday.
“For me, it was 100%, yes, I’ll pitch Tuesday,” said Mize, a first-time All-Star who grew up one state over from Atlanta in Alabama. “We have to make decisions based on the rest of the season as well, so we’re going to be cautious of that. But from my personal case, yeah, I said yes to pitching.”
Even though Suárez and Sánchez turned down the All-Star invitation, several Phillies players told The Athletic last week that they were irritated that MLB put Brewers rookie sensation Jacob Misiorowski on the NL roster after only five career starts.
“It’s not about the kid,” Kyle Schwarber, the Phillies’ lone All-Star in attendance, clarified Monday. “It’s not his fault that he’s only pitched five games. If he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’s going to be an All-Star every year that he pitches. It’s just more the fact of, our guys are having some really good years, and you want them to feel like they’re going to get represented in the way that they should be.
“Even though they couldn’t pitch in the game, we felt like they were All-Stars. When you get named an All-Star, that goes with your legacy, right?”
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Maybe. But the honor is increasingly watered down by the growing population of All-Stars. In addition to the initial 64 players who were selected, there were 15 roster additions. If MLB named unavailable pitchers as replacements and had to replace them, there would be 100 All-Stars.
“I don’t know the right way to do it,” Schwarber said. “We just felt like our guys were having some really good years, and we wanted to have their backs and wanted them to be named All-Stars. I don’t know how you do it differently.”
Take it from Sale, a nine-time All-Star unable to participate this year because of a fractured rib: There isn’t a clean solution.
Except, maybe, to realize the All-Star Game is merely an exhibition and not get bent out of shape over it.
“I guarantee you right now, if you ask every player here, ‘Would you trade this All-Star Game for a World Series championship?’ they would all say yes,” Sale said. “We still want to give the fans their experience and what they deserve and what they pay for. But when you start tinkering with the give-and-take of taking away from that [World Series] goal for this, that’s when the decisions get a little bit tougher.”
Surely, it came up between Wheeler and deGrom last week.
Like most of the non-participating players, deGrom showed up in Atlanta to tip his cap to the crowd. Wheeler, an Atlanta native, stayed away, citing last week that he wanted a full break to “do a little reset and get ready to go for the second half.”
It’s his prerogative. But if not for a poster above a premium-seating entrance on the first-base side of Truist Park — possibly in anticipation of a Wheeler-Skubal starting pitching matchup — there wouldn’t be any evidence that the Phillies’ best pitcher was even an All-Star.
“He had higher pitch counts early on in his career, but now, the way he attacks hitters, he goes right after guys and throws the ball where he wants,” deGrom said. “He’s been one of the best pitchers in baseball for the past three, four years, you know?”
Whether or not he chooses to come to the All-Star Game.