A catcher drafted by the Orioles will start the All-Star Game. It just won’t be the one currently on their roster.
Texas Rangers catcher Jonah Heim topped Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman in the second phase of fan voting to be elected the American League’s starting backstop in next month’s Midsummer Classic at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, Major League Baseball announced Thursday night. Heim was the Orioles’ fourth-round draft pick in 2013 and was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2016 for utility player Steve Pearce.
The first overall pick in the 2019 draft, Rutschman was the only Oriole to be a finalist at his position. He won the first phase of fan voting by a comfortable margin, with his nearly 1.3 million votes being over 320,000 more than Heim’s total. But those votes did not carry over to the second phase, where the top two finishers at each position (top six in the outfield) went head-to-head to determine the starters. Heim received 52% of the votes in the finalist phase.
Rutschman entered Thursday tied for the AL lead in walks and as one of five qualified major leaguers with more walks than strikeouts. He tops the circuit’s qualified catchers in on-base percentage, weighted on-base average and weighted runs created plus, trailing Heim in home runs, RBIs, OPS and FanGraphs’ version of wins above replacement.
Although Rutschman won’t join Gus Triandos (1958 and 1959) and Terry Kennedy (1987) as the Orioles catchers to start an All-Star Game, he remains a strong candidate to make the team. All-Star reserves and pitching staffs, determined by player voting and the Commissioner’s Office, will be announced Sunday.
Along with Rutschman, Baltimore’s best All-Star candidates are closer Félix Bautista (1.19 ERA, 21 saves, 50.3% strikeout rate), outfielder Austin Hays (third in AL with a .314 batting average), setup man Yennier Cano (1.4 fWAR trails only Bautista among AL relievers) and starting pitcher Tyler Wells (MLB-best 0.885 WHIP).
MLB All-Star Game
At Seattle’s T-Mobile Park
July 11, 8 p.m.
TV: Chs. 45, 5
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