Mets Send Four To All-Star Game, Including RBI Leader Alonso

 

Pete Alonso at bat on June 20 against the Miami Marlins. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Mets, who have had one of the best records in Major League Baseball for most of the season, will be sending four players to the All-Star Game in Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 19 - first baseman Pete Alonso, second baseman Jeff McNeil, right fielder Starling Marte, and closer Edwin Diaz. It is the second All-Star appearance for all four players.

This is the first time the Mets have four All-Stars since 2016, when they were defending National League Champions and Noah Syndergaard, Yoenis Cespedes, Jeurys Familia, and Bartolo Colon were sent to San Diego.

The Mets posted this on their Twitter account (@Mets) on Sunday night.

Pete Alonso is now the second Mets first baseman, along with Keith Hernandez, to be named to multiple All-Star teams. Hernandez, who had his number 17 retired by the Mets on Saturday, was an All-Star three times while he was in New York, and Alonso has now made it to two of them, with his first one as a rookie in 2019. 

Alonso has had an incredible season, as he is hitting .273 with 23 home runs and a league-leading 70 RBI. He is just four RBI away from matching David Wright's team record 74 RBI before the All-Star break in 2006. He also has a .348 on-base percentage, with a .533 slugging %, to give him an OPS (on-base plus slugging) of ,881.

Jeff McNeil is now one of two Mets second baseman, along with Ron Hunt, to be an All-Star multiple times. McNeil was an All-Star, like Alonso, in 2019, and Hunt was an All-Star in the early days of the Mets franchise, in 1964 and 1966.

McNeil is one of the best pure hitters in baseball, as exhibited by his .315 average, which is third-best in the National League and ranks sixth in Major League Baseball. His on-base percentage is .376, which is seventh in the NL, and he has the third-lowest strikeout rate, with 7.76 plate appearances per strikeout.

Starling Marte is in his first year with the Mets, and he has made the All-Star Game for the second time in his career, with his first one in 2016 while he was a Pittsburgh Pirate. 

Marte is having a solid year at the plate, as he is hitting .291 with nine home runs and 40 RBI, a .342 on-base percentage, a .462 slugging percentage, and an .803 OPS. His 26 multi-hit games ranks eighth in the National League, his 50 runs scored is tied for the team lead and tied for 12th in the NL, and his .291 average is 14th in the NL.

Edwin Diaz was named to the All-Star Game for the second time in his career, with his first appearance coming as a Seattle Mariner in 2018, right before he was traded to the Mets.

Diaz has 18 saves this season, which ranks fifth in the Major Leagues and fourth in the National League. He has 66 strikeouts in 33.1 innings pitched, and a strikeout per nine rate of 17.82, both which are the most in the Majors. He has struck out an incredible 49.6 percent of batters he's faced, 66 out of 133. 

Diaz was the National League Reliever of the Month for June after he posted a 0.93 earned run average (ERA) of one earned run in 9.2 innings pitched, and he converted all five of his save opportunities and recorded 21 strikeouts.