Braves, Phils Should Dominate NL All-Star Staff

By Dan Schlossberg

Teams seldom place a pair of pitchers on an All-Star roster.

This year, however, two teams seem poised to place three.

Both Max Fried and Chris Sale should be 2024 All-Stars.Photo byDan Schlossberg

Both the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, the top title contenders in the National League East, have passed the midway mark in the season with a troika of likely All-Stars in their rotations.

Atlanta newcomers Chris Sale and Reynaldo Lopez, plus holdover Max Fried, are all among the best pitchers in the Senior Circuit so far.

And Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Ranger Suarez should be named too.

National League manager Torey Lovullo, whose upstart Diamondbacks won the last NL pennant, will have the obligation to pick his pitchers. Anyone who works the Sunday before the All-Star Game might be eliminated because he wouldn’t work again in the Tuesday night contest at Globe Life Field.

Chris Sale, obtained from Boston for infielder Vaughn Grissom, has been a godsend for the Atlanta Braves this season.

Of the six candidates, Sale has the most All-Star experience. He’s made the team seven times — all in the American League — and has even started three times in a row, tying a record shared by Lefty Gomez and Robin Roberts.

In his first year with the Braves, Sale has silenced critics who contend he’s too old and too injury-prone to perform well. He and Suarez are the first Senior Circuit pitchers to reach 10 wins.

Bear in mind that none of this group has ever won 20 times in a season, with Sale, Fried and Nola the single-season leaders at 17 each — a level Sale reached three times.

Then comes Wheeler, whose personal peak, set last season, is 16 (13 in the regular season plus three in the post-season).

Suarez has already tied his previous peak of 10, which is also the most games Lopez ever won in a single season. But that’s because he spent much of his career in the bullpen.

Last year, only one pitcher in the majors won 20 games, a figure Spencer Strider hit on the nose with a win on the final day. He’s out with elbow problems this time around, leaving Sale and Suarez to contend for the Cy Young trophy predicted for him by pre-season prognosticators.

Starting pitchers used to go three innings in All-Star play but lately have only worked an inning or two (All-Star managers hate to overwork anyone else’s stars).

The betting here is that Sale will get the start because of his experience. If he works on the final weekend before the July 16 game, however, all bets are off.

If Lovullo wants a lefty to open the game, he’ll have three solid choices in Sale, Suarez, and Fried. None has won a Cy Young Award but all should contend this fall.

Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, Memories and Dreams, and Here’s The Pitch. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.