Earlier today Derek Jeter announced that he wouldn’t be playing in this year’s All-Star Game despite being ill-advisedly voted in by the fans to be the starter. Jeter, along with his teammate Alex Rodriguez, has elected to skip the All-Star Game to nurse his nagging injury and prepare for the second half of the season.
This is obviously good news, as the beneficiary of Jeter’s decision is the shortstop that should’ve been in his spot all along — Tigers’ Jhonny Peralta.
Peralta won’t start, because Asdrubal Cabrera was originally picked to be the backup, but he should be starting — he leads the AL amongst SS in BA (.313), OBP (.365), SLG (.539), HR (15), WAR (3.3) and is top five in all major fielding metrics. I’ve said that relative to his peers at the position, Peralta was the biggest snub in this year’s All-Star Game.
So, while he may not be the starting SS in this year’s All-Star Game, Peralta is at least getting his well earned spot on the squad. Peralta is the fifth Tigers player named to the All-Star team, the most they’ve had representing the Old English D in the mid-season classic since 2007.