Orioles will likely only get one all-star this year, and it's going to be someone nobody expected

All-star fan voting has ended, and the Baltimore Orioles will not have anyone on their team make the All-Star team by way of the fan vote. Still, every team gets a representative, so someone from the Orioles will take the field in Philadelphia during All-Star Weekend. The only question is who.

Coming into the season, most people would have expected Gunnar Henderson to make the All-Star team, but his season has been very disappointing, and that no longer seems likely. Adley Rutschman got off to a hot start, and it looked like he might be the obvious choice, but he's now on his second IL stint of the season, and the lack of games played is going to become a factor at some point when choosing an Orioles all-star.

Pete Alonso is a familiar name at the All-Star Game, and with how well he's played recently, he wouldn't be an undeserving representative, but American League first base is one of the most competitive positions in all of baseball. Nick Kurtz and Ben Rice both have legitimate MVP arguments, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr will probably win the fan vote. Also, the only Red Sox player having a good season is Willson Contreras, so he might get the Red Sox nod, and that would make the roster very heavy with first basemen.

Samuel Basallo is similarly deserving, but it looks like he is going to be boxed out of the AL DH conversation by Yordan Alvarez and Yandy Diaz.

When Rico Garcia was the most dominant reliever in the AL, it looked like he might be the Orioles' unlikely all-star, but a brutal June has put a serious damper on his candidacy.

Brandon Young is the obvious choice to represent the Orioles at this year's All-Star Game

That leaves one real option to represent the Orioles: surprise hero of the 2026 season, Brandon Young.

At the start of spring training, Brandon Young was at best eighth on the Orioles' starting pitcher depth chart. The Orioles were considering making Tyler Wells a starter, and if they had carried out that plan, he would have pushed Young to ninth on the depth chart. Besides starting the seasons o far away from the MLB rotation, it felt like the Orioles were also hopeful that prospects like Trey Gibson, Levi Wells, and Nester German would leapfrog Young at some point and make their debuts.

When the Orioles' rotation experienced cluster injuries, and Brandon Young showed up in Chicago on April 6th, many fans did not have high hopes for his tenure. With good reason too, as Young had been a tough watch in his extended run in 2025, putting up a 6.24 ERA in 57 innings with a low K% and a high BB%.

Yet with the exception of one bad start against the Astros and one short start against the Nationals, Young has done nothing but shove all season long. The Orioles are 10-2 in Young's starts. Without him to stabilize the rotation and put up consistent high-quality starts, this Orioles season would have been long over by now.

Of all the starting pitchers in the AL with at least 60 innings pitched, Young's 3.07 ERA ranked ninth. Sure, his xERA and his FIP and other indicators aren't as pretty as the other top 10 AL pitchers, but the All-Star Game is about recognizing what actually happens on the field, not what might happen next year, and based on what Bradon Young has done this season, he deserves to represent the Orioles at this year's All-Star Game.

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