Adolis Garcia, Joey Gallo and Kyle Gibson have made the All-Star game. This despite the dreadful season the Rangers are having in 2021, record wise. Now it can and will be argued that there was another All-Star as well, Isiah Kiner-Falefa. He was snubbed.
Adolis Garcia
Garcia did not even make the squad out of spring training. With 307 plate appearances under his belt, Adolis is batting .270/.306/.522/.829 with 20 home runs and 58 RBI. He has a 2.4 WAR and a RAR (Runs Above Replacement) of 24. Absolutely nobody expected this from a man that was put on outright waivers and not claimed by anyone. Adolis is a bonified star for Texas and has been one of the most fun players to watch in 2021. Well deserved All-Star nod.
Joey Gallo
Now Gallo did not have a very good slugging percentage in April or May. It is a little better now. In June, he is sporting the second highest batting average of his career. Also, he is slashing .233/.389/.485/.874 with 20 home runs and 46 RBI. Gallo has a WAR of 2.8 and a RAR of 27. He is also playing gold glove caliber defense in right field. He deserves to be there.
Kyle Gibson
Alright, Kyle Gibson is having himself a year. He has never had an ERA below 3.50 for a season. Also, he has never lost less than six games. Enter 2021. Kyle has an ERA of 1.98 through 16 starts. That includes his opening day ERA of 127.00. Lets look at where he ranks among AL starters:
WAR: 4.4 – 1st among AL Pitchers, second among all AL players.
ERA: 1.98 – 1st among AL pitchers.
Hits per 9 innings: 6.585 – 4th among all AL pitchers
Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP): 3.42 – 8th among all AL pitchers
He is having himself a season. Now Kyle should be the All-Star game starter, but he will not be. His name is not sexy enough. We will see how it plays out soon.
The Rangers are not having a great season, wins and looses wise. But these three gentleman totally deserve the nod for the All-Star game, and I am glad we will see them there.
