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An early look at how the Blue Jays could be represented at the 2023 All-Star Game
The 2023 MLB All-Star Game will be taking place this year in Seattle at T-Mobile Park on Tuesday, July 11th. It will be the 93rd edition of the Midsummer Classic and marks the third time in franchise history the Seattle Mariners will be hosting the event, after previously doing it in 1979 at the Kingdome and 2001 at Safeco Field (which has since been renamed to T-Mobile Park in 2019).
This year, fan balloting for positional players will be done strictly online at MLB.com and the voting process will be broken down into two phases. The first phase is set to open on Wednesday, May 31st at noon ET, and runs until June 22nd to determine the top two finalists for each position. The second phase will take place from June 26 to June 29 to determine the final All-Star starters after fans submit their votes again based on the two finalists at each position.
For the reserves and pitchers, they will be chosen by the players and the Commissioner's Office, with the players' ballot selecting 17 players from each league, and the Commissioner's Office selecting the remaining six players from each league.
The Toronto Blue Jays have had the honour to send multiple representatives, four to be exact, to each of the last two All-Star Games in 2021 and 2022, as they look to do the same this year after a solid start to the 2023 season. With the voting process starting in a few days, let’s take a look at which potential Blue Jays may get the call to this year’s All-Star festivities.
First base – Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has represented the Jays at the All-Star game the past two years after being voted in as the starter in both instances. However, his streak as a starter may be somewhat in jeopardy this year, with stiff competition coming potentially from Yandy Díaz of the Tampa Bay Rays and Anthony Rizzo of the New York Yankees.
Diaz currently leads all AL first baseman in batting average (.325), walks (26), home runs (12), on-base percentage (.429), slugging percentage (.619), and OPS (1.048). After somewhat disappointing years the past three years, Rizzo appears to have regained his All-Star form prior to 2019 this year and has helped lead the Yankees to an impressive record so far this season. In doing so, he currently leads AL first baseman in hits (61) and total bases (102), and is second only to Diaz in home runs, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS. Guerrero has cooled down a bit since his hot start to the season, but is still hitting a respectable .289 with eight home runs and 34 RBI and is currently ranked third behind both Diaz and Rizzo in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS.
Third Base – Matt Chapman
Matt Chapman began the 2023 season on a torrid streak, capturing both AL Player of the Week and AL Player of the Month honours in April, as he ranked 1st in all of MLB in multiple hitting categories at the time. However, after encountering some struggles in the month of May, it has lowered his “Superman”-type numbers back to more human-like in the past few weeks, allowing his competition to slowly catch up to him, with some even surpassing him in various categories.
In particular, Rafael Devers is once again having a strong season with the Boston Red Sox, and currently leads all AL third baseman in home runs (13), RBI (44), and slugging percentage (.513). Rookie Josh Jung of the Texas Rangers is also having a fantastic season currently, with 36 runs scored (leads all AL third baseman), 11 home runs and 35 RBI, helping to guide the Rangers to first place in the AL West. Chapman stills leads all AL third baseman in hits (56), doubles (19), on-base percentage (.359) and OPS (.844), but the gaps have closed up considerably. In addition, the notable José Ramirez is still doing José Ramírez-type things, so he will always be part of the conversation no matter what year it is.
Shortstop – Bo Bichette
After becoming a first-time All-Star back in 2021, Bo Bichette was snubbed last year, failing to make the All-Star game after a slow start to the 2022 season. This year, however, should be quite obvious, as Bichette is back again posting crazy, impressive numbers right from the start of the season. He currently leads all AL shortstops in hits (76), home runs (11), RBI (37), batting average (.335), on-base percentage (.373), slugging percentage (.537) and OPS (.910), with all of his main competition quite a bit behind in most categories.
Perennial All-Star candidate Carlos Correa of the Minnesota Twins has been struggling this year, leaving Bichette’s primary challenger as Wander Franco of the Tampa Bay Rays. Franco has been hot of late, and leads AL shortstops in doubles (15) and stolen bases (18), and is second only to Bichette in several other categories. However, with Bichette's production not expected to be letting up any time soon, he should be able to maintain his distance away from Franco or even pull away from him. So unless Bichette has a horrendous, unforgetable June, it's his spot to lose.
Pitchers – Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt
Both Kevin Gausman and Chris Bassitt have only been to the All-Star Game once in their careers back in 2021, representing the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics, respectively. Both pitchers have provided strong performances for the Jays so far in 2023, putting each of them in a prime spot to make this year’s event. Among qualified pitchers, Gausman is currently ranked in the top 3 in the AL in strikeouts (89), quality starts (8), and SO/9 ratio (11.72). Bassitt, surprisingly, has been pretty solid himself, ranking in the top 10 in the AL in wins, innings pitched, quality starts and opponents batting average, and has been key for the Jays this year in turning things around after a Jays’ loss.
However, both will be up against some strong AL competition as Shane McClanahan (leads in wins), Nathan Eovaldi, George Kirby (leads in BB/9, and K/BB), Shohei Ohtani (leads in strikeouts, SO/9 ratio and opponents batting average), Sonny Gray (leads in ERA), Framber Valdez (leads in innings pitched and quality starts), Luis Castillo, Joe Ryan, Gerrit Cole, Cristian Javier, and Zach Eflin, to name a few, have all gotten off to strong starts to the 2023 season as well. This doesn't even include relievers, such as Félix Bautista, Carlos Estévez, Jhoan Durán, and Alex Lange, who themselves are also having incredible seasons thus far in 2023. What it may come down to for all the candidates will be their performances in the upcoming month of June, which will determine who are the main contenders and who may be the pretenders for the Midsummer Classic.