MLB All-Star Game 2022: Julio Rodríguez, Ian Happ lead list of 34 first-timers
By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer
LOS ANGELES — Just as there are countless roads to becoming a major-leaguer, there are many paths a player can take to becoming an All-Star.
As fun as it is to see the usual suspects such as Freddie Freeman, Justin Verlander and Manny Machado make their annual appearances, I'm always far more excited to see guys make their first trip to the Midsummer Classic and take a moment to appreciate what goes into achieving such an honor.
Top five All-Star Game moments
These are the 34 first-time All-Stars in 2022, categorized:
Veterans who finally made an All-Star team
Martin Pérez, Texas Rangers
Travis d'Arnaud, Atlanta Braves
C.J. Cron, Colorado Rockies
Tyler Anderson, Los Angeles Dodgers
How cool is it that 31-year-old left-hander Pérez was able to put it all together for the team he came up with after a three-year hiatus from the Rangers? I certainly didn't see that coming.
It feels like Cron has been launching dingers for a decade but only now is getting recognized as one of the premier big boppers in the game — even adjusted for Coors Field.
Anderson always seemed like a standard-issue No. 5 starter until he became a Dodger, making it all the more fitting that he got his first invite when the 2022 All-Star Game is being held at Dodger Stadium (8 p.m. ET Tuesday on FOX and the FOX Sports app).
And then there's d'Arnaud, the oldest first-timer on the roster at age 33. The veteran catcher has had quite the journey since being a huge part of two blockbuster trades as a prospect more than a decade ago — first from Philadelphia to Toronto for Roy Halladay and then from Toronto to the Mets for R.A. Dickey. Now d'Arnaud has won a World Series and become an All-Star for the first time in consecutive seasons. Well worth the wait!
The relievers
Clay Holmes, New York Yankees
Jorge López, Baltimore Orioles
Ryan Helsley, St. Louis Cardinals
David Bednar, Pittsburgh Pirates
Emmanuel Clase, Cleveland Guardians
Devin Williams, Milwaukee Brewers
Jordan Romano, Toronto Blue Jays
Relievers are so volatile that it's common to have a fresh batch of late-inning superheroes making their first All-Star team almost every summer. This year's crop is headlined by Holmes, whose breakout in the Bronx has been one of the biggest stories in baseball and a huge part of the Yankees' first-half dominance.
Helsley and Clase are the new fireballers on the block, each of them outrageously frequent producers of triple-digit heat. Bednar and López have become dynamite closers for Pittsburgh and Baltimore, respectively, and Williams is back to looking like his Rookie of the Year self in Milwaukee.
Romano, entirely aware of the variance of his role, admitted that he was never really sure if he would be named an All-Star.
"I had a pretty good first month," he told FOX Sports on Media Day. "And then after that, it was a little up and down. Every two weeks, I was like, ‘Oh, maybe [I'll be an All-Star],' and then suddenly, ‘Ah, probably not.' Being a reliever, whether I thought I could be an All-Star or not depended on the day."
It was going to happen eventually
Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins
Julio Rodríguez, Seattle Mariners
Yordan Álvarez, Houston Astros
These are the guys who seemed destined to be All-Stars since they were teenagers. However, Buxton's injury-riddled journey to ASG No. 1 is a great reminder of how hard it is for players to reach their potential, no matter how talented they are.
Rodríguez, meanwhile, does not appear to have gotten the memo that things aren't supposed to be this easy this early in your MLB career. He's taking the league completely by storm, as evidenced by his Home Run Derby performance on Monday.
Mariners' Julio Rodríguez shines bright on biggest stage
Álvarez is unfortunately dealing with injuries now, but he has clearly ascended into the tippy-top tier of pure hitters in the league. It was clear from the day he debuted that he would be an All-Star one day.
Not surprised they became All-Stars, but it's still very cool to see
Andrés Giménez, Cleveland Guardians
Jazz Chisholm Jr., Miami Marlins
William Contreras, Atlanta Braves
Max Fried, Atlanta Braves
Joe Musgrove, San Diego Padres
Austin Riley, Atlanta Braves
Alek Manoah, Toronto Blue Jays
Shane McClanahan, Tampa Bay Rays
This group had significant prospect pedigree coming up through the minors and thus had people believing they could become All-Stars one day. Still, it's always satisfying to see this kind of talent actualize on the biggest stage. It's one thing to read about a player's tools in a scouting report; it's another to see them on display in full force at the highest level.
Not every first-round pick is going to be an All-Star, but this group worked hard to ensure that those high picks and signing bonuses were spent wisely.
Top of the 2015 MLB Draft
Dansby Swanson, Atlanta Braves
Kyle Tucker, Houston Astros
Andrew Benintendi, Kansas City Royals
Ian Happ, Chicago Cubs
These guys all could fit in the group above, but they share an even closer throughline: They were selected with four of the first nine picks in the 2015 MLB Draft. Teams always hope they're drafting All-Stars when they pick in the top 10, but these players are great examples of how long it can sometimes take for those projections to manifest.
Swanson (taken No. 1 overall by Arizona) and Benintendi (No. 7 overall by Boston) are no longer with the teams that drafted them. Swanson became a Brave before he ever reached the D-backs, and Benintendi is in only his second season with Kansas City.
Happ has put together a stellar first half amid a difficult stretch for the Cubs and therefore could be on the move via trade, but not before representing the team that selected him No. 9 overall. Tucker (No. 5 overall by Houston), the lone high school draftee in this bunch, has blossomed into one of the best outfielders in the AL. He's heading to the All-Star Game for the first time in a year in which his teammate, Alex Bregman (taken No. 2 overall by the Astros), did not get an invite.
(Austin Riley went 41st overall as part of the compensation round in the 2015 Draft, so he could have been included in this tier as well.)
Prospect development isn't linear
Framber Valdez, Houston Astros
Jose Trevino, New York Yankees
Luis Arráez, Minnesota Twins
Paul Blackburn, Oakland A's
Alejandro Kirk, Toronto Blue Jays
Nestor Cortes Jr., New York Yankees
Garrett Cooper, Miami Marlins
Tony Gonsolin, Los Angeles Dodgers
Santiago Espinal, Toronto Blue Jays
Ty France, Seattle Mariners
These are the guys who maybe appeared lower on prospect lists during their minor-league careers and needed to find their big-league niche to ascend to All-Star status. They had to find what worked for them, as well as break through the ceiling placed on them by evaluators who insisted they would never be more than role players or back-of-the-rotation depth.
At 31, Cooper is the oldest of this group, but his 320 career games pale in comparison to the likes of d'Arnaud and Cron. Cooper is more in the late bloomer category with the likes of Trevino and Blackburn.
Valdez, Cortes and Gonsolin have all emerged as legitimate frontline starters, each doing so in their own funky, effective way. Kirk, Arráez and France have shown us just how far a plus-plus hit tool can take you even if your game doesn't offer a whole lot else.
"When I would go to bed, I thought a lot that I wanted to be an All-Star," Arráez told FOX Sports. "When I wake up, I'd say I wanna be an All-Star. I just needed to play hard every day, and I'd deserve it. This is a dream for me."
Jays infielder Espinal is the ultimate Swiss Army knife and a much better hitter than most projected him to be. The players in this group have all outperformed their prospect pedigrees, and it's fantastic to see them rewarded with All-Star nods.
The 31-year-old lefty checks so many boxes of a quintessential first-time All-Star and thus deserves his own category. Reliever? Check. Didn't have any major-league success until his 30s? Check. The lone All-Star representative from a bad team? Check.
But hey, when you allow only one run in your first 29 appearances of the season, you're gonna get on the All-Star radar no matter what team you play for. Mantiply has struggled a bit in recent weeks, but he has established himself as one of the more reliable left-handed relievers. And for a former 27th-round pick in his fourth organization, that's pretty cool.
Mantiply might be the most anonymous player on the roster, but he's an All-Star just like Mike Trout and Mookie Betts, and no one can ever take that away from him.
It's a beautiful thing.
Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He lives in D.C. but is a huge Seattle Mariners fan and loves watching the KBO, which means he doesn't get a lot of sleep. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.
