Baltimore Orioles: John Means Is An All-Star, Trey Mancini Snubbed

In his first full season in the big leagues with the Baltimore Orioles, starting pitcher John Means is now an All-Star. Should Trey Mancini also have been added to the roster?

A very interesting weekend in Birdland came to a close with a bit of a surprise announcement. One day after the Baltimore Orioles became the first team to record two straight shutouts while scoring 13 or more runs, Major League Baseball announced the rosters for this year’s All-Star game in Cleveland, and unsurprisingly, just one Orioles’ player was selected.

What was surprising was the player selected. John Means, the Baltimore Orioles ace, was selected as the O’s lone All-Star, not Trey Mancini who most fans widely assumed would be traveling to Cleveland as an American Leauge All-Star.

https://twitter.com/Orioles/status/1145451651714732032

Means (7-4, 2.50 ERA) is deserving of his selection and may be even more deserving than Mancini, but he is a much lesser known player than Mancini and it’s a bit of a shock he was selected over the veteran outfielder as the Orioles’ lone All-Star. With Baltimore heading for a league-worst record for a second-straight season, odds of having two representatives were a long shot.

Despite that, both Means and Mancini should have made the All-Star team. Mookie Betts should not have. Yes, Betts is the reigning American League MVP and one of the biggest stars in all of baseball but he, like much of the Boston lineup, has not played up to his usual standards this year and has had a far worse first half of the season compared to Mancini.

Betts is hitting just .261 with an .837 OPS, a 119 wRC+, and has been worth 2.4 fWAR. Not quite the accomplishment of Mancini’s .302 average, .907 OPS, 136 wRC+, and 1.7 fWAR (even with Boom Boom playing out of position in right field for the majority of the season).

While it might be better for baseball to have Mookie Betts in the All-Star game as he is the reigning MVP, one of the more popular players in baseball, and will bring eyeballs to the All-Star game, the game should no longer be a popularity contest. The players who are most deserving, and have had the best seasons up to this point in the season, should make the All-Star game, a pretty simple concept.

Here’s where Mancini ranks among American League outfielders in a number of different categories:

• Batting average- .302 (2nd)
• Slugging percentage- .548 (2nd)
• wRC+ – 136 (2nd)
• Home runs- 17 (8th)
• Doubles- 19 (8th)

Mancini deserves to be an All-Star and it’s a travesty he is not. With no final vote this year as MLB changed the All-Star voting process, Mancini’s only remaining chance to make the team is as a replacement.