Braves Send Eight Players to All-Star Game

The final box score of this summer’s MLB All-Star Game may reflect the Atlanta Braves’ franchise-record, eight-player contingent having a negligible impact on the exhibition’s outcome, but the 93rd Midsummer Classic held on July 11 at Seattle’s massive T-Mobile Park still goes down as an iconic evening in Atlanta sports history.

The Braves entered the break on pace for 109 wins (a total that would eclipse the current franchise-best 106-win mark set by the ’98 club), after having gone 28-7 since June 1. So, it was only fitting that the best team in baseball, one fueled by a relentless lineup projected to break MLB’s single-season home run record and supported by a patchwork pitching staff, had six position players (starters Ronald Acuna Jr., Sean Murphy, and Orlando Arcia and reserves Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson, and Austin Riley) and two pitchers (Spencer Strider, Bryce Elder) to match the 2008 Chicago Cubs, 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1956 Cincinnati Reds, and 1943 St. Louis Cardinals for the most All-Stars for a National League team in a season.

Only six teams (all from the American League) have had more than eight All-Stars in a year. Perhaps if Atlanta’s two front-of-the-rotation starters (Max Fried, Kyle Wright) and most effective reliever (Jesse Chavez) were healthy, this year’s Braves would have set the National League record.

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There simply hasn’t been a roster this deep and talented in years, maybe even decades.

“They [the Braves] have the best offense I’ve ever seen probably in my time in the big leagues,” said St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado the day before he and the other NL All-Stars edged their AL counterparts, 3-2, to deliver the Senior Circuit its first ASG win since 2012. “They’re definitely different. Credit to that organization for getting all those guys.”

“I think I saw they [the Braves] were the first team to 60 wins, and I’m not surprised,” added the Arizona Diamondbacks young ace pitcher Zac Gallen, who started the game for the National League. “It’s a good team from top to bottom. They play good defense, hit, pitch, it’s awesome. Some of these guys, it’s fun to watch.”

It made sense that nearly a third of the NL All-Star roster was comprised of Braves. The rest of the country needed to see what has kept the city of Atlanta abuzz this summer.

“Especially around the stadium – I don’t live over there – but when I’m over there you can tell people are excited coming out to games. It’s a lot of fun to play in front of,” said Elder, who actually began this season in Triple-A Gwinnett.

Even though he grounded out and struck out in his two plate appearances, Ozzie Albies — by virtue of his prolific power numbers for a second baseman — was a deserving choice to join the NL squad // Photo Credit: Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves

The Braves came into the All-Star break having hit a homer in 26 consecutive games. On the second pitch of the game, it appeared Atlanta’s historic power surge would be on full display when likely NL MVP Acuna Jr. smashed a deep drive to right. However, it wasn’t to be as Adolis Garcia, of the Texas Rangers, leapt up against the right field wall to snag Acuna Jr.’s drive.

“The sun was really tough out in right field,” García said in Spanish after the game. “At first, I really couldn’t see the ball, but I just followed it and was able to make the catch.”

Indeed, a blinding sun, courtesy of the 5 p.m. West Coast start made fielding – and hitting against All-Star pitchers – a cumbersome task.

“They [Braves] have a mighty offensive team. They have a great team. In their defense, it was really tough to see at that time that they were hitting, all those guys,” AL manager Dusty Baker said afterwards when asked about his pitching staff holding the Braves’ hitters to merely one hit. “Because everything’s a blur at that time. The sun’s not helping, the lights don’t help, so that was a tough time to see. These are the best of the best. Those Braves, you know, I don’t want to face ‘em every day. We faced ‘em and swept ‘em when they were a little cold over there in Atlanta.”

That the Braves All-Star sluggers were uncharacteristically cold in Seattle that evening didn’t diminish the magnitude of the franchise having eight All-Stars (Strider and Elder were on hand but didn’t pitch due to having recently started before the break) and, in the fifth inning, comprising the entire National League infield – an even more impressive feat considering the recent departures of Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson.

“It was one of the most special moments this year so far,” Albies told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution afterwards. “To have the whole infield playing in the All-Star game is pretty sick. It was a great time and a great moment to have that together.”

As part of the all-Braves fifth-inning infield, Olson replaced Freeman at first – just as he did in the Braves’ everyday lineup a season and a half ago.

For Olson, the lanky, sweet-swinging first baseman who attended Parkview High School in Lilburn, his first All-Star appearance as a Brave took on special meaning…even though he struck out in his only plate appearance before getting lifted for New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso.

“I think 10-year-old Matt thought it’d be really cool,” said Olson. “I always pictured myself in a Braves uniform. You want to picture yourself in the All-Star Game doing all this stuff. To have them meshed together is cool.”

Atlanta’s lone offensive highlight was a sixth-inning single by the third baseman Riley, who, as a 26-year-old, presumably has many All-Star Games in his future.

I think 10-year-old Matt thought it’d be really cool. I always pictured myself in a Braves uniform. You want to picture yourself in the All-Star Game doing all this stuff. To have them meshed together is cool.

“He [Riley] has got elite power, but defensively he’s just gotten so much better,” noted Arenado. “I mean he’s really good over there. The one thing I respect about him, and their team, is that they play every day. He doesn’t really take a whole lot of days off. He is one of my favorite players in this game.”

In a bit of irony, perhaps the most notable contribution by a Brave came on defense when Murphy, the club’s first-year catcher who’s having a career year, gunned down Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena attempting to swipe second in the bottom of the first. In doing so, Murphy became the first catcher to record a caught stealing in an All-Star Game since Alex Avila pulled off the trick in 2011.

“Yeah, I mean he [Murphy] is an incredible catcher,” Colorado Rockies catcher and All-Star Game MVP Elias Diaz acknowledged about his All-Star teammate with whom he shared catching duties. “He has a lot of skills, a lot of knowledge. So being able to be around him and kind of learn from him, understand how he plays his game, it’s been an incredible experience for me. I’m coming away from it really satisfied with the amount of knowledge that I take from him, that I’ve learned from him to be able to move forward in my game as well.”

With a passel of uber-talented twentysomethings inked to long-term contracts, the Braves promise to have sizable contingents at future All-Star Games. And, after next year’s game at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, it is entirely possible that the 2025 All-Star Game will be played at Truist Park.

While a formal announcement will likely come this winter, the Braves’ home – along with Chicago’s Wrigley Field, Baltimore’s Camden Yards, and Toronto’s Rogers Centre – is being considered as a potential host for the midsummer spectacle.

If the Braves host the All-Star Game in 2025 – something that was originally supposed to transpire in 2021 — it would mark the third time the franchise has done so, the other two times being 1972 and 2000.

“Atlanta is in the mix of clubs for the ‘25 All-Star Game,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told the Baseball Writers’ Association of America on the morning of this year’s game. “I’m not prepared to go past that for right now.”