Meet the American League All-Star Pitchers

Who?

That was my reaction on Saturday after seeing the American League’s pitching staff for the 2026 All-Star Game. Sure, I’m generally aware of this collection of pitchers, and yes, there are deserving All-Stars here. But without Tarik Skubal, Garrett Crochet, and Max Fried, the AL lacks the star power of year’s past, especially in comparison to the National League.

Today, I want to briefly walk through the names on the roster so far, why they’re here, and who might join them should the opportunity arise over the next week:

Cam Schlittler, SP, NYY

Cam Schlittler is just 25 and already “on pace” for one of the best Yankee pitcher seasons by WAR this century. He debuted around this time last year and displayed impressive stuff, albeit with pesky command issues. This year, he’s halved his walk rate while maintaining the whiffs on an upper-90s, three-fastball mix. Schlittler’s step forward has been crucial for the Yankees, who’ve been without Fried since early May and are also now with Carlos Rodón. Both lefties were All-Stars last season. After throwing eight innings of one-run ball against the Rays on Monday night, Schlittler took over the top spot on the AL pitcher WAR leaderboard (3.6). He also leads all qualified AL starters in ERA (2.01) and FIP (2.58).

Dylan Cease, SP, TOR

This is somehow Dylan Cease’s first All-Star nod. Entering 2026, his first season with the Toronto Blue Jays after signing a seven-year, $210 million contract to play with the defending AL champions this offseason, Cease had racked up 20.6 WAR across the previous five seasons. Now 30, he ranks second among AL pitchers with 3.3 WAR, and he had led until Schlittler surpassed him on Monday night. With 90 1/3 innings, Cease is just shy of qualifying for our rate stat leaderboards — the Blue Jays played their 91st game Monday night, so as of Monday morning he did qualify — but among pitchers with a minimum of 90 innings, he leads the AL with a 2.26 FIP and a 36.7% strikeout rate. However, it hasn’t been a perfect season for him. He missed a couple starts with a mild hamstring strain at the end of May, and his walk rate has spiked to 17.9% on the third pass through the order, limiting his ability to work deep into games. Even so, he’s flashing the best stuff we’ve ever seen from him.

Joe Ryan, SP, MIN

Joe Ryan is still in the American League, he’s still throwing tons of fastballs, and he’s still missing tons of bats. With nine strikeouts over seven shutout innings against the Yankees on Sunday, Ryan reached 3.1 WAR, tying his career-best mark set in 2024 and 2025. This is the best he’s ever looked, as Michael Baumann pointed out in May. What’s next for Ryan isn’t quite clear, but he’s helped keep the Twins on the cusp of contention in a weak AL field.

Ranger Suarez, SP, BOS

Ranger Suarez has been as good as ever since signing with the Red Sox this offseason. He’s still a crafty lefty throwing in the low 90s, and he’s still fooling batters with a broad arsenal and strong command. Unfortunately, he’s also still struggling to stay on the field. He missed a couple starts in May with a hamstring injury, and he left his last start Sunday with left adductor tightness. The severity is not yet clear, but it seems unlikely that he’ll pitch in the All-Star Game.

Parker Messick, SP, CLE

Suarez isn’t the only crafty lefty on this list. Parker Messick for the Guardians is having a breakout season. His stuff doesn’t stick out quite like the others on this list, with a “mere” 18.2% K-BB rate. But he has strong command, a weird arm slot, and a broad, six-pitch arsenal that’s proven quite deceptive, as Baumann wrote in May. Messick has also been among the best at facing lineups for a third time in a game this year, helping him reach the top 10 in innings pitched.

Drew Rasmussen, SP, TB

After missing large swaths of 2023 and 2024 with elbow troubles, Drew Rasmussen has earned his second straight All-Star nod, and this is surely the best he’s ever looked. He’s tapered off the four-seam usage in favor of more cutters and changeups. Not only is he getting more strikeouts and fewer walks (having bumped his K-BB from 15.4% last year to 20.9% this year), but he’s also been much better at limiting hard contact. Rasmussen’s early excellence has been crucial for the Rays, who despite their success, entered the year with several question marks in their rotation.

Louis Varland, RP, TOR

The Blue Jay may have been hoping for more save opportunities this year, but the ones they’ve had have been all but guaranteed by Louis Varland. He’s striking out tons of batters, limiting walks, and keeping the ball on the ground. As Ben Clemens pointed out in early June, Varland is making tons of appearances and throwing tons of innings (a combo that doesn’t always go hand-in-hand), and he’s doing it in exceptionally high-leverage spots. He leads all of baseball in Win Probability Added, and at 2.2 WAR, is currently tied with Mason Miller for the most valuable reliever in baseball. There are five relievers on the AL’s roster. Varland has been the best.

Michael Wacha, SP, KCR

Hey, it’s this guy. It’s kind of fun that Michael Wacha is good again. He debuted way back in 2013 for the Cardinals at just 21 years old and made his first All-Star team in 2015. This is now his second All-Star nod in his 14th season. There’s been a variety of minor tweaks to Wacha’s repertoire over the last decade, but fundamentally he remains a steady, unspectacular, mid-rotation arm. His numbers might not stick out on the page, but most teams are desperate for a guy like this, even the AL All-Stars.

Jacob Latz, RP, TEX

Jacob Latz halved his walk rate this year, and now he’s one of the best closers in baseball. The Texas lefty throws tons of fastballs, which is still the same mid-90s offering. But it’s the slider and curveball that have suddenly changed in movement and effectiveness. Whereas last year he got whiffs on 35% of swings at non-fastballs, this year that rate has bumped up to 41%. It’s helped him strike out more batters and crucially avoid long at-bats ending in walks. I’m not sure I’ll remember Latz was an All-Star in 10 years, but he’s certainly deserving at the moment.

Cade Smith, RP, CLE

It’s another great season for Cade Smith — his third of three. I don’t even know what to say about him. He throws a hard four-seamer that misses lots of bats. He throws a big, broad sweeper that misses lots of bats. And he throws a splitter, now with more depth than before — in fact, the most depth in the league — that also misses lots of bats. I like to throw around the term unhittable perhaps more than I should, but when Smith is on (and he almost always is) he’s truly unhittable.

Bryan Baker, RP, TB

Bryan Baker is striking slightly out fewer batters and allowing slightly more walks than last year, but he’s cut his HR/9 from a putrid 1.70 in 2025 to 0.52 in 2026. The biggest change (aside from a new home stadium) is all but eliminating the slider, which got smacked around last season. He’s now pretty much a two-pitch reliever, with a 97-mph fastball and a well-tunneled changeup about 12 mph slower. He still gets lots of whiffs and chases, and he’s displayed one of the largest improvements in contact-quality suppression in the majors.

Aroldis Chapman, RP, BOS

Now 38, Aroldis Chapman is in the second year of his late-career revival with the Red Sox. He’s not quite as dominant as he was last season, but he still owns a 2.36 ERA, a 2.44 FIP, and 18 saves in 28 games (26 2/3 innings) in 2026, enough for him to notch his ninth All-Star selection. It’s been a meandering career for Chapman, who debuted in 2010 and quickly emerged as one of the most electric relievers ever. He set records, earned awards, and provided postseason heroics for both his team and his opponents. He’s won the World Series twice, in 2016 with the Cubs and 2023 with the Rangers, but his success has been intertwined with and overshadowed by a few off-field incidents, one of which was particularly dangerous and disturbing. In late 2015, according to police reports obtained by Yahoo Sports, he allegedly choked his girlfriend and fired a gun in his garage, though no charges were filed. After he was suspended 30 games in 2016 for violating the league’s domestic violence policy, he went to therapy, which he says has helped him “be a better person.” He also had a strange, messy falling out with the Yankees in late 2022 involving an infected leg tattoo and a skipped team workout before the ALDS. His legacy is complicated, with his suspension and odd behavior as much a part of it as his performance on the mound.

Potential Alternates

Reid Detmers is currently fourth in the AL and sixth in the majors by pitcher WAR. I wrote about his command improvements not long ago, which have helped him throw more strikes and avoid walks. He’s since turned in a few exceptional outings, followed by a few clunkers. Exactly where Detmers lands on the good-to-elite spectrum is hard to separate from everything else going on in Anaheim, but he’s striking out batters, limiting walks, and avoiding quality contact. The AL should be so lucky.

The same could be said for Bryan Woo, who also ranks in the top 15 in the majors in pitcher WAR but has turned in several poor outings in 2026. Like Detmers, Woo suffers from a very bad group of fielders behind him. But Woo’s issues are more tied to massive home-road splits, with a 155 tOPS+ on the road being the second-most extreme in baseball this year. He is known for his invisi-ball fastball, and it’s possible it doesn’t play quite as well without the extreme backdrop created at T-Mobile Park. Still, Woo’s home performance has been so exceptional that he could be an All-Star regardless.

Logan Gilbert and George Kirby are also near the top of the AL leaderboard by WAR. In fact, the Mariners rotation leads the majors by WAR, so you’d think Seattle would have at least one pitcher represented on the All-Star team. But Gilbert struggled with consistency through his first 10 starts, and despite an active hot streak since mid-May, his season numbers don’t overwhelm. And while Kirby’s tradeoff of strikeouts for grounders has resulted in maintaining his FIP at career norms, his outings have often been at the whims of the defenders behind him.

There’s also a trio of White Sox with a strong All-Star case. Davis Martin is having something of a breakout season and sits in the same WAR tier as Detmers and Woo. But he’s had a few shaky outings since June that likely tanked his bid. Grant Taylor and Sean Newcomb have also been great out of the bullpen, though neither holds the traditional closer role that might earn him a spot otherwise.

I’m a bit surprised Jacob deGrom is not an All-Star. He made the team last year during his great comeback campaign, and he’s been just as good this year, even improving his K-BB% a few ticks. He had a few bad outings in May, but he’s remained impressive overall. The same could be said for MacKenzie Gore, who also made the (NL) All-Star team last year, and has posted fairly similar numbers. To be fair, Gore’s 2025 was marked by an outstanding first half and a shaky second, and 2026 has been more consistently inconsistent. He wouldn’t be my first choice as an alternate, but if he winds up on the team, it wouldn’t be out of place.

My sense from afar is Yankee fans aren’t super-duper stoked about David Bednar, but I’ll fall on the sword here and say he’s one of the best relievers in the AL at the moment. That said, I might give any extra bullpen spots to Bednar’s teammate, Brent Headrick, who’s been exceptional as the Yankees’ top lefty reliever in 2026. Admittedly, Headrick brings this post full circle, forcing me to ask again: Who?