The most recent collective bargaining agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association included a clause allowing Commissioner Rob Manfred to add a player for each side in an All-Star game based on their career achievements, According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
“In addition to the 32 players elected and selected in the All-Star Game, the Commissioner may elect to add one player of his or her choice to each league’s roster, in recognition of each player’s career accomplishments,” the paragraph states, in Rosenthal’s report. If special circumstances warrant, the commissioner may select more than one player on each league’s roster.
Rosenthal Albert Pujols of St. Louis Cardinals and Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers are examples of players who could benefit from this paragraph. Pujols is expected to retire at the end of the season. Meanwhile, Cabrera became the last player to score the 3000th hit in April. Neither of them will be in the race for a Midsummer Classic spot based solely on their performance this season: Pujols have earned 74 OPS+ in 142 games. For his part, Cabrera scored 105 marks over the course of 266 trips to the board.
To be clear, neither is officially named to the list. MLB will announce the start of this year later this week, on Friday, July 8. Then the full lists will be announced on Sunday, July 10.
This year’s All-Star Game is scheduled for Tuesday, July 19 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The 2020 All-Star Game was originally supposed to take place at Dodger Stadium, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused the event to be cancelled, with MLB instead playing a 60-game schedule and expanded playoffs.
