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, one of four Rangers who fans voted to start, 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 roughly 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 closest race of the finalist phase to earn his first All-Star nod.
Rutschman, 25, entered Thursday tied for the AL lead in walks (52) and as one of five qualified major leaguers with more walks than strikeouts. He is slashing .268/.378/.411 — good for a .789 OPS — with 11 doubles, 10 home runs and 34 RBIs. Heim, 27, has a higher OPS (.800) and more doubles (17), home runs (11) and RBIs (55) than Rutschman. His 2.7 wins above replacement on FanGraphs ranks best in the AL, ahead of Rutschman’s 1.8.
Although Rutschman won’t join Gus Triandos (1958 and 1959) and Terry Kennedy (1987) as the Orioles catchers to start an All-Star Game — Matt Wieters was voted as the starter in 2014 but was unable to play because of an injury — 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.
Austin Hays, who leads Baltimore in WAR and ranks third in the AL with a .314 batting average, is the second-most likely Orioles position player to be named a reserve. Tyler Wells is the only starting pitcher with a credible case, as the 6-foot-8 right-hander boasts a 3.21 ERA and leads the majors with a 0.885 WHIP. In the bullpen, closer Félix Bautista and setup man Yennier Cano have both put up stellar first halves. Bautista is on pace to shatter records with his 50.3% strikeout rate, while Cano’s 1.4 WAR is second in the AL behind only Bautista.
Baltimore Sun reporter Jacob Calvin Meyer contributed to this article.
MLB All-Star Game
At Seattle’s T-Mobile Park
July 11, 8 p.m.
TV: Chs. 45, 5
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Source: Berkshire mont