The 2024 MLB All-Star Game will be played on July 16th at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, and you can be sure several members of the Yankees will be playing.
A team that is 44-19 certainly deserves to have multiple players earn a spot in the Midsummer Classic, and the 2024 Yanks are no the exception.
My colleague John Griffin will closely examine the position players on the Yankees who are deserving of being voted All-Stars, while I’ll take a look at the pitchers who are most likely to be picked for the game.
As a reminder, the starters around the diamond when it comes to position players are chosen by fans. The hurlers, on the other hand, are picked by the managers of each All-Star team. A name that certainly would have warranted serious consideration is Clarke Schmidt, but he wasn’t included in this exercise because he figures to be out for at least six weeks and likely more due to his lat strain. Nestor Cortes gets an honorable mention as well for posting some rock-solid numbers, but sitting just a bit too close to the (upper) middle of the AL pack for the most part.
So, which Yankees pitchers are deserving of being honored with an All-Star berth this year?
The Locks: Luis Gil and Clay Holmes
Who would have thought that the guy replacing Gerrit Cole in the Yankees rotation – nearly at the last minute, too – would be one of the few locks to make the All-Star team on the staff? We all knew Gil had upside, but boy, not to this extent. His walk problem went from alarming to tolerable this year, but the key to his success is the fact the opposition just can’t hit him.
Gil leads qualified American League starters in batting average against, at .129 (!). The second best is Tarik Skubal, at a distant .191. Batters just can’t do anything about the 96-98 cheese at the top of the zone he consistently throws, combined with two solid secondary offerings in his slider and changeup.
The fastball has a 30.6 percent whiff rate, which is ridiculously high for that type of pitch. Gil will walk people, but as long as he follows his gameplan and keeps being stingy with hits and homers, he will remain one of the best in the game.
