With All-Star finalists announced last week, Phase 2 of voting begins today to elect the starting lineup. While the fans did an admirable job narrowing the choices down to two at each position, I do have a few beefs with their picks. It’s time for my All-Star team, where you will find five position players who didn’t even make it to Phase 2. The toughest choices? American League starting pitcher, National League and American League shortstop and National League third base.
Catcher
AL: Cal Raleigh, Mariners
Behold not just the historic but also the unprecedented. Raleigh must maintain his swing from both sides of the plate and withstand the rigors of catching. And yet he hit 32 home runs, the most in the first half of a season by a switch-hitter and the most by a catcher. Moving closer to the plate this year, he has become a pull-side monster.
My favorite stat: Raleigh has hit 42 pull-side flyballs this year, and 26 of them were home runs, or 62%.
NL: Will Smith, Dodgers
He is the Freddie Freeman of catchers: Put traffic on the bases, and he becomes an even better hitter. Smith hits .318 overall, .380 with runners on and .419 with runners in scoring position.
My favorite stat: Smith is on pace to become the first catcher since Buster Posey in 2012 with an OPS of .900 and fewer than 100 strikeouts.
First Base
AL: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays
Spencer Torkelson of the Tigers has more home runs and RBI, but Guerrero gets the edge by getting on base more and striking out less. With a career-high walk rate and career-low chase rate, Guerrero has nearly as many walks (47) as strikeouts (49).
My favorite stat: Guerrero is the only player in MLB to rank in the 89th percentile or better in strikeout percentage, walk percentage and exit velocity.
NL: Pete Alonso, Mets
Alonso is having a better season across the board than Freeman and Michael Busch of the Cubs. His batting average on balls in play is not likely to be sustainable (.342, 72 points higher than his career average), but what does bode well is that he increased his bat speed by 1 mph, and he is among the most improved hitters against breaking pitches.
My favorite stat: Alonso sees a career high 37% breaking pitches but has improved from .196 and .165 the past two seasons to .241.
Second Base
AL: Gleyber Torres, Tigers
Brandon Lowe of the Rays gets the edge in power numbers, but Torres leads qualified AL second basemen in WAR, OBP, slugging and OPS+. He has more walks (42) than strikeouts (40).
My favorite stat: With a .379 OBP with two strikes, Torres is the best two-strike hitter in the league. It’s the best such mark by a Tiger since Victor Martinez in 2014.
NL: Ketel Marte, D-Backs
Marte gets the pick here over Brendan Donovan on the strength of his 17 homers, 1.005 OPS and 175 OPS+. Only Brice Turang and Nico Hoerner have more WAR, but they can’t match Marte’s production.
My favorite stat: Marte, always better from the right side, is slashing .329/.428/.658 from the left side, all career highs.
Shortstop
AL: Jeremy Peña, Astros
He leads all AL shortstops in WAR, hits, runs, OPS, OPS+, and that’s in a deep field that includes Bobby Witt Jr., Jacob Wilson and J.P. Crawford. In his first extended run in the leadoff spot, Peña has slashed .354/.403/.538 from the top of the order.
My favorite stat: The metrics suggest a regression is due. In addition to a .360 BABIP, Peña does not rank well in exit velocity (27th percentile), chase rate (13) and walk rate (21).
NL: Elly De La Cruz, Reds
Now this is a stacked field, including CJ Abrams, Francisco Lindor, Trea Turner and Mookie Betts. De La Cruz leads all of them in WAR, home runs, stolen bases, runs, total bases, slugging and OPS.
My favorite stat: The Reds are 108–62 (.635) when De La Cruz scores a run and 64–108 when he doesn’t (.372).
Third Base
AL: José Ramirez, Guardians
I’m tempted to pick 21-year-old Junior Caminero with his position-leading 20 homers, 156 total bases, 50 runs and epic bat speed. But Ramirez is having the better year when you factor in his defense, baserunning and contact skills.
My favorite stat: Ramirez already ranks fifth among players with the most MVP shares without ever winning the award, trailing only Al Simmons, Bill Terry, Eddie Murray and Mike Piazza.
NL: Manny Machado, Padres
This may be the closest race on the card, with Eugenio Suárez and Max Muncy making very strong cases. Do you want Suárez's edge in power? Muncy’s edge in getting on base with walks? I’ll take the volume and steadiness of Machado, who leads at his position in runs, hits, doubles and batting average.
My favorite stat: Machado, 32, is only seven hits short of 2,000. Only two third basemen had 2,000 hits by their age-32 season: Hall of Famers Adrian Beltré and Ron Santo.
Outfield
AL: Aaron Judge, Yankees.
Hard as it is to fathom, Judge is better than he’s ever been. His batting average (.356), slug (.722) and OPS (1.180) are higher than ever. And he’s dialed up the aggressiveness. Judge is swinging at more pitches in the zone and more first pitches than ever before.
My favorite stat: Judge sees more pitches in the strike zone (50.2%) than ever before and more than the average big league hitter. One question, pitchers: why?
AL: Riley Greene, Tigers
He strikes out way too much, doesn’t walk enough and has little power against lefties, but darn if Greene somehow doesn’t help the Tigers win games in multiple ways just about every day. He’s got a steep swing like Freeman and, like Freeman, finds ways to get the barrel on the ball.
My favorite stat: With a career-low groundball rate, Greene has lifted his slug to a career high .539.
AL: Byron Buxton, Twins
Buxton has never hit more than 28 home runs, mainly because of being held back by injuries. But in a virtual season of his 169 games over the past two years, he has hit 37 homers, slugged .542 and, okay, whiffed 175 times. At 31, he’s lost none of his elite speed or defensive skills.
My favorite stat: With 19 homers and 15 steals, Buxton is the only AL outfielder halfway to 30-30.
NL: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs
He is one of the biggest breakout stars of the season. It began last July, when a slumping PCA was benched for a couple of games to get his swing tweaked. At the time he was a career .169/.229/.275 hitter who was getting the bat knocked out of his hands. With the help of hitting coach Dustin Kelly, PCA worked on a drill to load on his back side while eliminating the bat-speed-sapping drift in his stride. He’s been a different hitter ever since. Crow-Armstrong is halfway to a 40-40 season while playing superb defense in center field.
My favorite stat: Crow-Armstrong chases outside the strike zone 44.3% of the time, the worst chase rate in MLB except for Lenyn Sosa of the White Sox.
NL: James Wood, Nationals
He ranks second among NL outfielders in RBI and OPS, third in total bases and WAR and fourth in hits. His easy opposite field power is so scary he slugs .983 when he goes the other way. Only Judge is more dangerous to the opposite field.
My favorite stat: In his first 162 MLB games, Wood hit 32 doubles and 31 homers and stole 24 bases. Only one other player started like that: Nomar Garciaparra.
NL: Kyle Tucker, Cubs
This has the look of a huge platform season heading into free agency, especially as Tucker over the past few years has learned how to drive the ball in the air with backspin. He leads NL outfielders in runs, hits and OPS+ and ranks second in WAR.
My favorite stat: One of the game’s most reliable players, he is posting an OPS+ greater than 120 for a sixth straight year. Only three other players have such a streak going: Ramirez, Alonso and Freeman.
Designated Hitter
AL: Brent Rooker, Athletics.
With Rafael Devers traded to San Francisco, Rooker, a classic pull power hitter, leads AL DHs in runs, homers and total bases. He has made 12 starts in the outfield.
My favorite stat: Rooker keeps cutting his strikeout rate, from 32.7% in 2023 to 28.8% last year to 20.5% this year. The improvement this year is the fifth largest in MLB.
NL: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers
The Unicorn leads all hitters in the league, not just DHs, in homers, runs, slugging, OPS and total bases. His league-leading OPS+ the past three seasons are 185, 187, 182. How is that for elite consistency.
My favorite stat: Just one won’t do. Ohtani has hit the eighth most home runs by any player through 958 career games. He is the only player with 250 homers and 150 steals through 958 games. And on the mound, he is one of only five pitchers with 600 strikeouts and an ERA no higher than 3.00 through 89 games. The others are Dwight Gooden, Tim Lincecum, Herb Score and Stephen Strasburg.
Starting Pitcher
AL: Tarik Skubal, Tigers.
I had Hunter Brown of the Houston Astros as my pick before Skubal threw his 13-strikeout, one-hit gem Sunday night. Skubal leads AL pitchers in strikeouts, WHIP, strikeout-to-walk rate and wins.
My favorite stat: Skubal has piled up 9.86 strikeouts for every walk. Only one pitcher ever reached 200 strikeouts in a season with a better strikeout-to-walk rate: “Grasshopper” Jim Whitney with the 1884 Boston Statistics.
NL: Paul Skenes, Pirates
He leads the NL in ERA while allowing the fewest hits and homers per nine. Skenes is a master craftsman with elite velocity, pushing the envelope of what it means to shape pitches in today’s game.
My favorite stat: Skenes has the lowest ERA of any pitcher through 40 games (2.03) and the 10th most strikeouts (280).
Relief Pitcher
AL: Josh Hader, Astros
He leads AL closers in saves and WHIP and is second in strikeouts per nine innings. The key? He is throwing his slider more than ever (39.8%), which keeps hitters from sitting on his fastball.
My favorite stat: Batters are hitting .059 against Hader with runners in scoring position (2-for-34).
NL: Edwin Díaz, Mets
The numbers are unmatched among NL closers: 1.99 ERA, 0.947 WHIP and a league-leading 13.1 strikeouts per nine. He has not been hurt much by career-worst rates of first-pitch strikes (50%) and overall strikes (61%).
My favorite stat: Batters are hitting .069 against Díaz with two strikes, which would be the fifth-lowest since 1988 among pitchers with at least 50 innings (Eric Gagne, Hader twice and Craig Kimbrel).
More MLB on Sports Illustrated
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Tom Verducci's 2025 MLB All-Star Game Ballot.