Will the Reds Get More Than One All-Star Game Spot?

W e are less than a month away from baseball’s midsummer classic, the All-Star Game—or, as it’s officially called, the “2024 MLB All-Star Game Presented by Mastercard.” I’m a certified All-Star junkie, and when the players line up on the first and third base lines for introductions at Globe Life Field in Arlington during the first week of July, I’ll be tuning in.

The game itself isn’t as much fun as it was when I was a kid, but as a spectacle baseball’s showcase remains entertaining. Perhaps not as entertaining a spectacle as it must have been back in 1933 at the very first contest, which featured names like Ruth, Gehrig, and Hubbell, but any time you get all of baseball’s greatest players in one place I’ll be interested.

For the record, the Reds only had just representative on the NL roster for the first All-Star Game: left fielder Chick Hafey, a future Hall of Famer who went 1-for-4 as the NL’s cleanup hitter. And since the rules require that every team have at least one player on an All-Star roster, we’ll get to see one of the hometown nine down in Texas next month.

That’s a dumb rule, one I think of as the “Reds Rule,” mostly so I can make dumb jokes about how bad the club usually is by this time of year. It’s kind of my stock in trade, you know. Last year, closer Alexis Diaz was the only Red on the NL roster. In 2022, Luis Castillo represented Cincinnati all by himself.

The other day, I made that joke to my friend Joel Luckhaupt, statistician for Reds broadcasts on Bally Sports. “Well, actually,” he said. “Before the last couple of years, the Reds seemingly always had more than one player selected each year.” And he was right ! (I guess I knew this trivia a couple of years ago , but I can’t be expected to remember everything like Joel does.)

So which Red(s) will be chosen this summer? MLB just released their first update of the fan balloting, and precisely one Red was on the list at any position. Not great, Reds fans! That one player, as you may have suspected, was shortstop Elly De La Cruz, who was third among NL shortstops behind L.A.’s Mookie Betts and Philadelphia’s Trea Turner.

For most of the season, De La Cruz seemed like a good bet to make his first All-Star team. Though he’s cooled lately, the league’s most electric player (and stolen base leader) still stands a pretty good chance. With Betts, clearly the best NL shortstop, expected to miss considerable time after fracturing his left hand when he was struck by a 98-mph fastball, there will be an extra spot on the roster for a shortstop. Unless Elly tanks over the next three weeks, I’d expect to see him on the NL team.

Who else? If you judge by Wins Above Replacement, Cincinnati’s most valuable pitcher this season has been Hunter Greene. The 24-year-old is having a good season, posting a 5-2 record and a 3.61 ERA while demonstrating an ability to pitch deeper into games. He’s turned the corner in his development, and it’s exciting to watch. Greene also has a little of the “fame” cache that seems to help when it comes time to pick rosters, and he’s ninth in the league in strikeouts, which isn’t nothing.

But that ERA isn’t even in the top 20 among qualified National League starters, so he’ll have some work to do if he wants to be selected. It isn’t even the best on the Reds: Andrew Abbott is 5-6 with a 3.42 ERA. And then there’s Nick Lodolo, who I think is the best bet among Reds pitchers to be on the NL squad. Lodolo is 7-2 with a 2.93 ERA that would be seventh-best in the league if he had enough innings to qualify. He’s been Cincinnati’s most consistent pitcher. If he gets another couple of wins by the end of the month, he’ll be on the short list.

If you’re wanting to bet on a dark horse candidate, what about Tyler Stephenson? He’s hitting .250/.332/.406 with a 109 OPS+. On second thought, wait … please don’t wager on this. There is plenty of competition among NL catchers . He’s pretty unlikely, which is unfortunate, because it’s been fun to watch the 27-year-old former first rounder return to form.

Which brings me to the name that I almost can’t believe I’m going to mention: Jeimer Candelario. One month ago, the third baseman—who Cincinnati signed over the winter to a three-year, $45 million contract—was hitting .216/.284/.379 and often looked lost at the plate. In his last 21 games, however, he’s exploded, hitting .318/.359/.694 with 15 extra base hits, including eight home runs. His surge has helped the Reds creep back into the NL Central race at a time when they appeared to be dead in the water. If he continues to hit and if the Reds can manage to win a few more games in the coming weeks, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Candelario garner the honor.

If I had to rank the candidates, I think I’d put them in this order of likelihood: De La Cruz, Lodolo, Greene, Candelario, Abbott, Stephenson. And then maybe Spencer Steer? We have three-plus weeks of baseball before the All-Star Game, so these rankings could change a dozen times between now and then. This isn’t an exact science.

What I can tell you with 100 percent certainly is this: Whether Cincinnati gets one All-Star representative or three, every single Red selected for the NL roster will be a first time all-star. Alexis Diaz is the only player on the current club who’s ever experienced a midsummer classic. So we’re about to see at least one player receive a life-changing honor, which is pretty great! I can’t wait to watch.

Chad Dotson helms Reds coverage at Cincinnati Magazine and hosts a long-running Reds podcast, The Riverfront . His newsletter about Cincinnati sports can be found at chaddotson.com . He’s @dotsonc on Twitter.

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