ATLANTA — An unfortunate topic during what is supposed to be a week of celebration of baseball’s best has been the shrapnel taken by electric rookie starting pitcher Jacob Misiorowski.
The young phenom of the Milwaukee Brewers was selected as a replacement to the NL All-Star roster and has been taking strays ever since in the way that the public—and even some MLB players—have reacted to his selection.
The contention stems from Misiorowski’s relatively lean MLB resume, as the 23-year-old has pitched just 25.2 innings since earning his promotion from Triple-A in June. Misiorowski has shined in his limited opportunity, striking out 33 batters while posting a 2.81 ERA and showcasing a triple-digit fastball.
Recency was on his side, too, as Misiorowski’s last outing before the All-Star break was arguably his most impressive. The flame-throwing Brewer struck out a whopping 12 Dodger hitters last Tuesday, allowing just one run over six innings of work.
So, as the planned participants for Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Atlanta began dropping like flies due to various reasons—a big one being that any pitcher who starts on the Sunday before the All-Star break is ineligible to participate in the game for health and safety reasons—MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s office was tasked with selections to fill out the rosters.
In the case of Misiorowski’s inclusion, despite strong opinions from some around the league, Manfred stands by the decision.
“Replacements is a really difficult issue,” Manfred said Tuesday. “We had worked our way through more replacements than I wish we had to. I mean, is some of it Sunday starters and luck of the draw? When I looked at the choices, I thought that the appropriate balance on this one was the excitement that was going to be generated, the fan interest in seeing this guy, and you know, I actually thought the competition in the game cut in the same direction.”
Manfred did acknowledge that he doesn’t necessarily want to render such limited track records of big-league performance as the new norm for All-Star consideration moving forward. But under the specific circumstances of this year’s selection process, Manfred felt—and still feels—that Misiorowski fits the billing for what MLB is looking for out of this week’s celebration of the sport.
“He’s a very, very good pitcher on a very, very good run right now. So, I saw that one going that direction. Do I understand that five starts are short? Yeah, I do. And do I want to make that the norm? No, I don't. But I think it was the right decision given where we were.”