Four Royals Named to MLB All-Star Game
Less than an hour after the Kansas City Royals dominated the Colorado Rockies 10-1 on Sunday afternoon, the rosters for the 2024 MLB All-Star Game were revealed.
It's no secret that the Royals franchise has struggled since they won the World Series back in 2014, as they've recorded zero seasons above .500 since then. However, Kansas City has shown a lot of promise to return to its ideal form this season as Saturday's victory bumped the team's record up to 48-43.
There have been many players on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball that have made this start to the season possible. Catcher Salvador Perez, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., and starting pitchers Seth Lugo and Cole Ragans were all selected to the 2024 MLB All-Star Game on Sunday evening.
Perez is the lone Royal that still remains from that 2014 World Series team and he's been named an All-Star numerous times since then. The now-nine-time MLB All-Star sits second on the Royals in batting average (.276), on-base percentage (.343), slugging (.454), hits (90) and home runs (14).
There was no doubt that Witt would be selected to his first All-Star game as he was recently in the running for the AL starting shortstop spot with Gunnar Henderson, but the young Baltimore Oriole won that battle. Witt is first on the Royals in each of the categories that were listed for Perez. That said, his 119 hits are the most in all of baseball and his .324 batting average trails only Cleveland Guardians left fielder Steven Kwan.
Lugo has been making a case to be the AL Cy Young Award recipient throughout the entire first half of the season. His 122 innings played and 11-3 record are both the top spots for any pitcher in baseball. Additionally, the first-time All-Star's 2.21 ERA only trails Atlanta Braves' Reynaldo López for the best in the MLB.
Ragans joins Witt and Lugo as the third Royal headed to his first All-Star Game. His 13 quality starts (19 games started) puts him in a four-way tie for the sixth-most in the league, while his 11.00 strikeouts per nine innings (11.00) is the seventh-most in baseball.
