By Dan Hock
**KANSAS CITY, Mo.**—Major League Baseball announced today the rosters for the 2024 All-Star Game, which will be played on Tuesday, July 16 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The American League team will feature four Royals players, including Salvador Perez, Bobby Witt Jr. and Seth Lugo (who were elected by the players) and Cole Ragans (who was selected by the Commissioner’s Office).
The four All-Star players are the most for the Royals since 2016, when Perez led the American League in All-Star votes and Eric Hosmer started and was named All-Star Game’s Most Valuable Player. Kelvin Herrera and Wade Davis were also named All-Stars that year, though Davis didn’t pitch due to injury.
Last week, Major League Baseball announced that Royals Strength and Conditioning Coach, Ryan Stoneberg, will join Manager Bruce Bochy’s American League staff for the 2024 All-Star Game.
Perez is an American League All-Star for the ninth time in his career, which leads all active catchers and ranks 2nd in Royals history to George Brett’s 13 All-Star selections. His nine All-Star selections are tied with Jose Altuve and Dave Concepción for the 3rd most by a Venezuela-born player, trailing only Miguel Cabrera (12) and Luis Aparicio (10).
Salvy, 34, entered today among the American League leaders at catcher this season (min. 50% games at the position) in extra-base hits (30, tied for 1st), hits (88, 2nd) and RBI (55, 2nd). His 18 go-ahead RBI rank tied for 5th in the Majors among players at all positions. Perez had 2 more hits in today’s win, including the 1,500th hit of his career.
The 2024 All-Star Game will be a homecoming of sorts for first-time All-Star Witt Jr., who grew up in Colleyville, Texas, which is less than 20 miles north of Globe Life Field. The 24-year-old entered today ranking among the top 5 in the Majors in several offensive categories, including hits (116, 2nd), batting average (.320, 2nd), multi-hit games (36, 2nd), extra-base hits (48, 4th), total bases (201, 4th), runs (70, tied for 4th) and stolen bases (22, tied for 5th). He added 3 hits in today’s win, including a 3-run home run. On defense, Witt Jr.’s 12 Outs Above Average lead all shortstops and trail only Marcus Semien and Michael Siani (13 each) at all positions.
Witt Jr. is the third Royals shortstop to be named an All-Star, following Fred Patek (1972, 1976, 1978) and Alcides Escobar (2015).
Witt Jr.’s 49 extra-base hits including today are already the 2nd most by any Royals player before the All-Star break, trailing Mike Sweeney’s 56 extra-base hits before the break in 2001. With 1 extra-base hit in the next 5 games, Witt Jr. would become just the sixth player to record at least 50 extra-base hits and 20 steals before the All-Star break, and would join Bobby Bonds (1973), Alfonso Soriano (2002), Ian Kinsler (2008), Mike Trout (2013) and José Ramírez (2018).
Lugo, 34, is a first-time All-Star in his ninth Major League season. He entered today leading the Majors in ERA (2.21), innings (122.0) and quality starts (15). His 11 wins are tied with Chris Sale for the Major League lead and his .786 win percentage (11-3) is tied for 3rd best in the Majors. Lugo has completed at least 6.0 innings in 17 of his 19 starts, the most such starts in the Majors.
Ragans, 26, was Kansas City’s Opening Day starter this season and is now an All-Star for the first time in his career. He’s 5-6 with a 3.28 ERA (40 ER in 109.2 IP) in 19 starts, and his 134 strikeouts were the 3rd most in the Majors entering today, trailing Garrett Crochet (146) and Tyler Glasnow (143).
Ragans was a 2016 1st-round pick of the Rangers, who are hosting this year’s All-Star Game. He made his Major League debut with the Rangers in 2022 and made Texas’ Opening Day roster in 2023, before being acquired by Kansas City on June 30, 2023 in a three-player trade that sent Aroldis Chapman to the Rangers.
Lugo and Ragans are the first Royals pitchers to be named to an All-Star Game since Jason Vargas in 2017. This marks the first time in franchise history that the Royals will have two All-Star starting pitchers in the same season.
Kansas City’s four All-Star players were acquired via international signing (Perez, 2006), the First-Year Player Draft (Witt Jr., 2019), trade (Ragans, 2023) and free agency (Lugo, 2023).
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