A Yankees team filled with established stars will be represented at the All-Star Game instead by stars both rising and resilient.
A club that features many-time All-Stars such as Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole, Max Fried and Paul Goldschmidt will instead send Cam Schlittler, Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger to Citizens Bank Park on July 14, MLB announced Saturday.
Judge, too, was voted in but will not play due to injury.
Schlittler and Rice, the upstart, Boston-area pair, were shoo-ins for the honor and can aim even higher, candidates for the league’s Cy Young and MVP, respectively.
Both will be attending their first Midsummer Classic.
“It’s special,” Schlittler, who was voted in by the player ballot, said after an 11-4 loss to the Twins in The Bronx. “[Both of us] being from Massachusetts, that’s a great feeling. Being able to share that connection with him. [Rice has] had a great season so far and he deserves it.”
As does Schlittler, who could start for the AL, owns the league’s best ERA (2.08), the second-most strikeouts (123 in 104 innings) and second-best WHIP (0.96).
A seventh-round pick out of Northeastern who learned to throw harder and harder, until his stuff was blowing away major league hitters, has arrived.
Schlittler said he would pitch in the game “if it lines up,” but added that the “team comes first.”
The Yankees will want to monitor the innings of Schlittler, whom they plan on riding into October.
“We’ll see,” manager Aaron Boone said.
Rice also came out of the Boston area (Cohasset and Dartmouth) and also came out of nowhere, a 12th-round pick whose college career was ruined by COVID but who hit his way through the Yankees’ system.
After a solid but not sterling first full season in 2025, he has emerged as one of the best hitters in the game (.926 OPS with 24 home runs) and fit nicely next to Judge (when healthy) in the lineup.
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“You don’t necessarily come into the season saying, ‘I really want to be on the All-Star team,’ but you can only hope that if you do your best every day and stick to your process and results follow, then maybe you get the chance,” said Rice, who was picked by the commissioner’s office.
Bellinger will make his third trip to the All-Star Game but first since 2019.
The 30-year-old has reinvented himself through a non-tender from the Dodgers and a salary dump of a trade from the Cubs and will be an All-Star in his second season as a Yankee and his first of a five-year contract.
He last was an All-Star during his year-23 season, when he was the NL MVP for the Dodgers.
“It feels good,” said Bellinger, who is no longer the 40-homer threat he once was but does everything well, from hitting to fielding to throwing to running. “It’s been a while. It’s been a long time coming. I’m going to enjoy it — first one with the family. I’m very excited to be there.”
For a Yankees club that has lost eight of nine, the announcements allowed for a moment to smile and look back upon seasons that will be honored.
“We’re in the throes of the season. We’re grinding in the middle of the summer here,” Boone said. “It’s like, pause and honor the people that are going and recognize what a big deal it is.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
