With the selections to the 2026 All-Star team, Travis Bazzana and Parker Messick became the fourth and fifth rookies in team history to make the roster, joining:
- 1990 Sandy Alomar Jr.
- 1960 Dick Stigman
- 1955 Herb Score
Bazzana also joins Stigman and Score as the only ones to do so in their first season in the majors.
Messick and Bazzana are also just the fifth pair of rookie teammates selected to an All-Star game, the first since Dellin Betances and Masahiro Tanaka represented the Yankees in 2014.
And they’re the first pair of teammates not involving a Japanese veteran coming to MLB since the 1960 Orioles sent three rookies to the All-Star game.
It’s also worth mentioning Stigman’s selection was bizarre and undeserved by any objective metric.
He was added to the team by White Sox manager Al Lopez “because he can come in from the bullpen and get a left-hand hitter good. He as good control and more baseball experience than [Steve] Barber.”
Barber was a rookie starter for the Orioles who was more deserving (he received MVP votes that year) and would later make two all-star games.
It’s also possible Lopez already knew Stigman from their time in Cleveland together (though I was unable to confirm this as a factor). Lopez was the Indians manager during Stigman’s first three years in Cleveland’s minor league system.
Stigman entered the break with a 3.80 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP in eight starts and 15 relief appearances.