Which four Texas Rangers players were selected to start the 2023 MLB All-Star Game?
Major League Baseball fans have notaiced the Texas Rangers’ turnaround season.
Four Rangers have been selected by fan voting to start for the American League in the July 11 All-Star Game.
Second baseman Marcus Semien will start for the second time in his career and first with the Rangers. Shortstop Corey Seager will make his fourth appearance in an all-star game but will start for the first time. And third baseman rookie Josh Jung and catcher Jonah Heim will each make their first start as the first time in an All-Star game.
The Rangers are the first team since the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox had four players start in 2016. It’s the first time since 2012 the Rangers have sent more than three players.
“When it’s all said and done, and you look at your career, (All-Star game appearances) are an individual award,” Semien said. “We all strive to be the best versions we can be. If the fans acknowledge us this year, it means we’re doing something.”
Semien, who joined Texas in 2022 after a starting the all-star game for the Toronto Blue Jays the year before, is seeing more success in his 30s than earlier in his career. He was primarily a shortstop for the Oakland Athletics, but since switching to second base for Toronto and Texas, has become one of the league’s best at the position.
“I played a lot of years at shortstop in the AL when (Xander) Bogaerts, (Carlos) Correa and (Francisco) Lindor were taking over,” Semien said. “Since I moved to second, it’s been great to be over there in the All-Star game and start.”
Seager, who has missed a month of the season with a left hamstring injury, still earned the all-star start after leading the American League in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. He previously made the all-star game as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016 and 2017 and with Texas in 2022.
“The All-Star game is really, cool, and anybody who gets to experience it, it’s exciting, but to start, I’m really looking forward to it,” Seager said.
Halfway through a breakout season, Jonah Heim has established himself as one of the better young catchers in the league this year. Heim was traded from Oakland to Texas in the offseason before 2021, when the team began losing 100 games. Now, with Heim leading all catchers in hitting and defensive metrics, Texas has reached first place in the AL West division.
“The last two years obviously didn’t go our way, putting it mildly, and this year we’ve got off to a great start,” Heim said. “This team is hungry. It all started in spring training, and we’ve showed we’re going to be a team to be reckoned with. Going with the other guys is going to be super special.”
As the first rookie to ever start the all-star game for the Rangers, Josh Jung is also now the first rookie third baseman to start since Eddie Kazak in 1949. Jung joins Adrian Beltre, Michael Young, Hank Blancock and Buddy Bell as the only Rangers third baseman to start. While in the top-five of most offensive statistical categories among AL third baseman, Jung, only 104 games into his major league career, will make a dream come true.
“You dream about this,” Jung said. “To do this in my first year is really special. I never thought about doing it as a rookie. It’s kind of a wild thing for me.”
