Jose Abreu an All-Star starter despite massive slump

7:59 PM CDT on July 8, 2018

For the first time since 1996, a White Sox position player has been voted to start the All-Star Game.

Unfortunately, the guy who ended this ignominious streak is the guy who could use a break the most.

Jose Abreu was selected to start at first base for the American League, a formerly unlikely development that became possible due in part to a thinning of known names. Abreu acknowledged that when assessing his chances a few weeks ago, a comment seemingly driven by modesty.

“The fans know me better now,’’ he said. “I’m also realistic. Miguel [Cabrera] is not playing, and Eric Hosmer is now playing in the National League. I’m happy, but maybe that’s why.’’

Sure enough, Matt Olson is the only AL first baseman who has accrued even 1 WAR at this point in the season, so the lack of name-brand producers would've been a contributing factor regardless.

Now, though, it's probably equal parts humble and accurate, because Abreu is one of those first basemen well below 1 WAR thanks to the worst slump of his career. He's hitting just .175/.232/.289 with two homers over his last 30 games (114 at-bats), including a 1-for-12 series against Houston. What looked like a routine outage has been exacerbated by a sore ankle, and now pitchers seem content to pick on him until he proves he can drive the ball in the air. Look at his spray chart since the start of June ...

… compared to that from May:

This rut has dragged his numbers down to pedestrian levels:

Through May: .298/.360/.522
Now: .259/.315/.448

So Abreu is not particularly deserving of an All-Star berth, especially a starting job. I suppose the solace is that this is only Abreu's second All-Star appearance, which seems a little light considering his production over the first four years of his MLB career. There also isn't another White Sox deserving of the honor, so he's not costing a less proven player a seat at the table as a token All-Star. In the big picture, it seems better that Abreu gets the label "two-time All-Star" instead of a rando like Joakim Soria getting the charity nod.

Looking at the rest of the American League lineup, it appears the fans did a pretty good job.