Posey named starter at catcher for NL in MLB All-Star Game

Share

In early July last year, Buster Posey announced that he would be opting out of the 2020 season. A lot has changed since then, but Posey got very familiar news on Thursday afternoon.

Posey was named an NL All-Star starter for the fifth time, beating out St. Louis' Yadier Molina and Chicago's Willson Contreras in a fan vote. Posey was one of three Giants to make the final ballot after weeks of fan voting; Brandon Crawford and Mike Yastrzemski were not voted in as starters, but Crawford is just about a lock to be included as a reserve. 

Posey has come back from the year off to post some of the best numbers of his career. He enters Thursday's game with a .330 batting average, .418 on-base percentage and .560 slugging percentage. With 12 homers, he already has tied his total from 2018 and 2019 combined, and his OPS+ of 169 is the second-highest of his career to his 2012 MVP campaign. Posey ranks seventh in the NL with 3.0 Wins Above replacement. 

The All-Star appearance will be Posey's seventh. He made the team six out of seven years before missing out in 2019 and sitting out last year. Posey led the fan voting wire-to-wire in the first phase and took 58 percent of the vote in the final phase, easily beating Molina (25 percent) and Contreras (18).

RELATED: Crawford still hopes to pitch for Giants one day

Crawford got 17 percent of the vote at shortstop, finishing just behind Chicago's Javier Baez (19 percent) and well behind Fernando Tatis Jr., the MVP frontrunner who will be making his first All-Star appearance.

Yastrzemski finished seventh among nine outfielders included in the final vote for NL starters. He received six percent of the vote. Atlanta's Ronald Acuña Jr. (21 percent) and Cincinnati's Nicholas Castellanos (18) and Jesse Winker  (16) were voted in as starters.

Contact Us