The Atlanta Braves are sending three players to the MLB All-Star Game on July 16, as announced on Sunday evening. While the trio may be a bit surprising based on preseason projections, the nods mark a moment of redemption for a trio of players that have fought to return (or in one case, reach) the Midsummer Classic.
"The road to the Braves All-Stars [is very different than expected]," Steak said Monday morning. "One would have imagined the Austin Riley's, Ronald Acuña's, Matt Olson's of the world. I don't think you thought in a crystal ball that Chris Sale would not only be a favorite to win a Cy Young and be on the All-Star team and have more wins than he's had in the last three or four seasons combined.
"Marcell Ozuna, who went through a stretch off the field and on the field as bad as any professional athlete could have. There was a stretch where 98 percent of Braves fans that said it was time to say buh-bye to Marcell Ozuna. And there is Reynaldo López who we said could maybe could fill in as a fifth starter [who is] also in the game with a ridiculously low 1.71 ERA through 16 starts.
"That's the threesome that will represent the Atlanta Braves at the All-Star Game."
It's certainly not what many Braves fans expected coming into the year, especially on the heels of the team sending eight separate players to this exhibition last season.
"It's been a rotating door of who can step up and who can elevate this team through their struggles through the first half of the season," Butler agreed. "But Reynaldo López would definitely be the No. 1 at the top of the list [as a big surprise]."
What López, in his first full season as a starter, has been able to do on the front end of the season has been nothing short of a spectacle.
He came into the season as a fringe candidate to secure the fifth starter position and could reach the break as the league's ERA leader, leading to his first career All-Star selection in his ninth season.
And while the midseason honor is nothing new to Ozuna and Sale, the nod marks an achievement that has eluded them for several years.
The 35-year-old Sale is making his first appearance since he made seven in a row between 2012 and 2018. The years in between were marred by injuries. This season has been a welcomed return to dominance, as he leads MLB in WHIP (0.91), wins (11), and Fielding Independent Pitching (2.26).
For Ozuna, this is a return to what we saw in the COVID-shortened season before injuries and off-field issues in 2021 outshined his equally questionable on-field play in 2022 and the early parts of 2023. He flipped a switch in the second half of 2023 that has since carried over into this season and he leads the NL with 72 RBIs while leading the Braves in every major statistical category.
The trio, while perhaps a bit unexpected based on preseason expectations, has been the bedrock for this team so far this season, and a true story of redemption.
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