Cleveland Indians: Shane Bieber, Jose Ramirez named All-Stars

Cleveland Indians: Shane Bieber, Jose Ramirez named All-Stars

The Cleveland Indians will have at least two members representing the club at this summer’s All-Star Game in Colorado as both Shane Bieber and Jose Ramirez were named to the squad. Major League Baseball released the pitchers and reserves for the teams on Sunday evening (July 4).

Heading into the 2021 season the Cleveland Indians had two players everyone knew were stars: Shane Bieber and Jose Ramirez. To the surprise of no one, those two are the Tribe’s representatives for the 2021 All-Star Game in Colorado next week. Ramirez was named a reserve infielder while Shane Bieber was named one of the seven starting pitchers to the American League’s roster.

More from Cleveland Guardians News

• Cleveland Guardians tantalizingly close to locking up AL Central tiebreakers
• Cleveland Guardians: Terry Francona becomes meme in profanity-laced ejection
• Say goodbye to defensive shifts and hello to bigger bases, pitch clock in 2023
• Cleveland Guardians: Shane Bieber second-fastest to 800 strikeouts in major-league history
• The next week will make or break the Cleveland Guardians’ season

Bieber will not be eligible to play in the game due to being on the injured list and thus will not be able to try and defend his All-Star Game MVP crown, though he has held the tile for over 700 days now after receiving it in 2019. The question remains if Jose Ramirez will be eligible as he’s still been out with an arm injury, and as of this writing has yet to be placed on the injured list.

Both Bieber and Ramirez are deserving of the selection with Ramirez being in the top 10 of the American League in fWAR among all position players and second among third basemen behind All-Star Game starter Rafael Devers. Ramirez is hitting a stout .265/.345/.537 with a 132 wRC+ and 18 homers, both second behind Devers among American League third baseman. Bieber, despite being injured, is still sixth in the American League in fWAR among starting pitchers and leads the league with 130 strikeouts.

The Cleveland Indians also have a big snub in reliever Emmanuel Clase. As of this writing, he has currently been left off despite being one of the best relievers in baseball this season. He has the lowest ERA of any reliever in the American League at 1.01 (min 20 innings) and top seven in both FIP and fWAR. He’s been far better than Aroldis Chapman who was named to the club, though perhaps there’s still a chance Clase could make if due to an injury replacement.

Aaron Civale also came up short despite being the first and only American League pitcher with 10 wins this year. Being on the injured list and having a lackluster ERA and FIP make him less of a snub though outside of loyal Tribe fans. The only other Indians’ player who maybe even had their name mentioned this week as a possible All-Star was likely James Karinchak, though he shouldn’t have been that close.

The 2021 All-Star Game is set to take place next Tuesday, July 13th at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. The game was of course supposed to be at the Atlanta Braves’ new ballpark but the location was changed by Major League Baseball. In any case, hopefully Tribe fans will at least get to see one of their stars in the game. And who knows, maybe Ramirez can bring the MVP back home to Cleveland!