The best of MLB Week One: The early All-Star performers
One week into a six-month MLB season is obviously way too early to assess who’s going to have a good season. But it’s not too early to say who had a good Week One.
Think of this, then, as a Week One All-Star team … a roster of the players who did thee best job of getting a jump-start on the season.
The Week One honorees are an eclectic mix of established MLB stars, fascinating rookies, and previously unheralded journeymen who caught fire right out of the gate.
None will continue their first-week pace all season, and several may soon retreat into anonymity. But a couple — perennial All Stars — have already amply demonstrated their ability to translate this kind of kick-start into an excellent year. We’re talking about you, Nolan Arenado.
This is a two-deep MLB All-Star team not segregated into American or National League iterations. It’s too early to exclude a very hot player because he happens to be in the same league as an even hotter player at his position.
The Week One All-Star team features four first-team and four second-team starters but no relievers, largely because the workloads for relievers have not yet approached anything resembling critical mass.
There was only one specific factor considered a “must” for inclusion. To be considered, position players had to have logged at least 25 plate appearances. Beyond that, strong showings in major hitting categories — average, on base, slugging, OPS, OPS+ — elevated a player’s status.
All data is through games played Friday.
Starters were not required to have made two starts, but it was a plus. Those who made the Week One team tended to have done well in baserunners per innings pitched, ERA, and workload.
MLB All-Star Week One Catcher
First team: Elias Diaz is a big reason why the Colorado Rockies have broken out of the gate 5-2 and find themselves in a three-way for first place in the NL West through Friday’s games.
A 31-year-old in his third season with the Rockies, Diaz has played in all seven of Colorado’s games. There’s an easy reason why: He’s batting .360 with a .600 slugging average.
He’s making consistent as well as solid contact. Diaz has only fanned twice, an 8 percent strikeout rate. That’s almost certainly not sustainable, but it’s fun as long as it lasts.
Diaz’ defensive numbers are not as impressive. His -11 defensive runs saved can only be justified by, “Hey, it’s early.” On the plus side, nobody’s yet attempted to steal on Diaz, which says something about either Diaz or Rockies pitchers.
Second team: The Phillies are paying J.T. Realmuto nearly $24 million to catch for them in 2022, and so far he’s worth it. Realmuto has nine hits in 25 official at-bats, a .360 average complemented by a .949 OPS.
He’s also hit in the clutch. One week into the season, Realmuto was sporting a 3.5 WAR. Since WAR is a cumulative stat, that projects over a full season to to a number so high it’s not even worth humorously speculating on.
MLB All-Star Week One first base
First team: When prognosticators wrote in the Rays as a preseason playoff front-runner, Ji-Man Choi was not one of the major reasons why. But his first week got attention all around baseball.
Choi batted a major league leading .526 with a major league-leading .640 on base average in 25 plate appearances. He’s driven in seven runs, including at least one in each of his team’s last five.
His slugging average is a round number: 1.000. His 1.640 OPS leads the majors.
Given that Choi is a lifetime .246 stick, he’s not likely to keep up that pace. But if he can hit even .275 with run production, it will be an expected and delightful asset for the Rays.
Second team: Vlad Guerrero Jr. is a big reason why the Toronto Blue Jays are clinging to first place in the competitive AL East. Guerrero has 11 hits in his 32 plate appearances, five of them home runs. That translates to a .367 batting average, a .900 slugging average, and a 1.306 OPS.
What makes that 1.306 OPS special isn’t the number itself. After all, five guys — among them Choi — are higher. The mystical aspect is that unlike the five guys above him through one week, you can’t rule out the possibility that Guerrero could keep it up indefinitely.
MLB All-Star Week One second base
First team: Owen Miller is one of several major surprises on a Cleveland Guardians roster that entered 2022 largely unheralded.
He won’t be able to keep up his early pace, but if he can settle into being half the player his early stats paint him to be, Guardians fans will take it.
Through 25 plate appearances, Miller — a second-year player splitting time between first and second — has a dozen hits, six of them doubles. He’s driven in seven runs.
His 1.043 slugging average leads the majors, and his 1.563 OPS ranks third.
Second team: Gavin Lux is finally emerging as the offensive threat the Dodgers have for several years insisted he would become. He has a .381 average with a .462 on base, five RBI, and a 218 OPS+. If you are in the mood for a very premature celebration, Lux’s start would amount to a really good excuse.
Given that Lux has not yet hit above .250 in his three partial seasons, he still has to prove that he can hit over the course of a full major league season. But having lost Corey Seager and with Cody Bellinger off to another slow start, Lux is so far giving L.A. exactly what the Dodgers need.
MLB All-Star Week One shortstop
First team: The New York Mets spent the season’s first week justifying their new owner’s profligate spending ways, and Francisco Lindor led that effort.
The .296 average may look pedestrian, but dig deeper. Lindor hit three home runs and doubled twice in his first week, producing a .357 on base average, a .704 slugging average, and a 1.16 OPS. Lindor hasn’t topped .285 since 2016. Combine that with the fact that he’ll pocket $34.1 million playing shortstop for the Mets this season and he has a lot to prove.
But since the Mets find themselves in first place in the NL East, one would have to say that so far he’s doing it.
Second team: If the Seattle Mariners are to break the franchise’s 21-season playoff drought, players such as J.P. Crawford need to contribute. Through one week, the Mariners’ shortstop certainly did his part.
In 33 plate appearances, Crawford has 11 hits and just one strikeout. His .407 average leads the team, as do his .515 on base average, his .519 slugging average, and his 1.034 OPS.
In his fourth season as the team’s shortstop, Crawford’s defensive numbers remain in neutral. That is likely to turn around: He’s been a +15 in defensive runs saved since 2020. He has not produced a negative defensive season since 2018, when he was learning his trade in Philadelphia.
MLB All-Star Week One third base
First team: Through one week, this is probably the most loaded position in baseball. It’s safe to say, however, that few if any players had as enjoyable a week as St. Louis’ Nolan Arenado.
Arenado closed the week batting a league leading .435 with four home runs and a dozen RBI. Project that dozen out over the full course of the season and you get some number of RBI above 300. I wouldn’t bet on Arenado keeping up that pace, but a personal best in the 130s is hardly stretching projections.
Second team: The way the Guardians were overlooked, it was easy to dismiss Jose Ramirez’ proven potential as irrelevant. Not so fast. Ramirez has 13 hits, more than any other American Leaguer, and 14 RBI, also a league high. His .464 average, .531 on base average, and 1.000 slugging average all equate to a 1.531 OPS, fourth-best in all of baseball.
He’s off to an inauspicious start defensively with two errors and a negative defensive runs saved score. But give Ramirez time because, historically, he’s solidly positive with the glove.
MLB All-Star Week One outfield, first team
Nobody thought much of the Chicago Cubs’ chances this season, but that was understandable: they hadn’t seen Seiya Suzuki.
In his first 26 MLB plate appearances, the Japanese League veteran and former batting champion is off to a .368 start with three home runs and 10 RBIs. His 1.395 OPS is surpassed only by Choi, Arenado, Miller, and Ramirez.
He’s also selective. Suzuki has walked six times in his seven appearances, contributing to a .500 on base average.
Steven Kwan’s uncanny ability to make contact — 116 pitches before a swing and a miss — was one of the story lines of the season’s first week. The rookie’s other numbers were just as stunning: a .455 average, a .606 on base average, 10 hits, five RBIs, and eight walks.
Not bad for a 2018 fifth-round draft pick, although the prescient might have seen it coming. Kwan did, after all, hit .328 in the minors in 2021.
Brandon Nimmo’s week ended with a positive COVID-19 test that got him a trip to the COVID-19 injured list. Things were certainly going well until then. Through six games, Nimmo hit .333 with eight base hits, two of them home runs.
Four of those eight hits were for extra bases, explaining his .708 slugging average.
MLB All-Star Week One outfield, second team
Pity the poor Orioles, who have to fight their way through the talent-laden AL East. At least they’ve got Anthony Santander.
Santander’s six hits led to a .316 average, and his seven bases on balls boosted his OPS to 1.062. Santander is a career.220 hitter in April, so his 2022 start suggests that, at age 27, he might be developing into an asset worth building around.
The big question about Byron Buxton is always whether he can stay on the field, and that was a story early in this season as well. Until that, Buxton’s .250 average is unimpressive, but his 1.058 OPS will get your attention. He has six hits so far, all of them for extra bases.
Defensively, there’s no question. Buxton has already accumulated two defensive runs saved, having handled 18 center field chances without incident.
Since arriving in 2017, Ian Happ’s history with the Cubs has been a roller coaster one. Chicago hopes his hot start will be more indicative of a pattern than a streak.
He’s off to a .429 start with a 1.044 OPS and five RBI. One curious aspect to Happ’s start is that the Cubs can’t seem to figure out what his slot will be. The switch hitter has batted cleanup four times and eighth twice.
MLB All-Star Week One starting pitchers, first team
The Mets entered spring with a rotation including Jacob DeGrom, Chris Bassitt, and Max Scherzer … so naturally the star of their first week was someone few people outside of New York had heard of.
Tylor Megill made two starts (including Opening Day), winning both and allowing no runs. In 10 innings, he gave up just six hits, fanned 11 and did not walk anybody.
It all amounted to a 0.581 WHIP. Megill faced 36 batters and allowed only six of them to reach base; only three advanced beyond first base.
The Arizona Diamondbacks don’t project to have much pitching, one of the reasons why they are so lightly regarded in the NL West. At least Merrill Kelly is off to a good start. Kelly’s two starts encompasses 9.1 innings and 38 batters faced. Only 11 of them have reached, only seven by base hits.
Kelly has yet to pick up a decision. That’s thanks largely to the fact that the D-Backs have scored exactly one run while he was actually on the mound.
Coming off his great 2021 season, the assumption was that Logan Webb would not be able to replicate it. He’s off to a good start trying. Webb’s first two starts encompassed 14 innings during which he’s allowed just nine hits and two runs.
He’s also been as close as there is these cautious days to a pitching workhorse. Webb has faced a league-leading 52 batters.
The Mets traded for Chris Bassitt over the winter, and so far they’ve reaped big benefits. Bassitt’s .554 ERA+ is of course unrealistically high, but it is MLB’s best.
In his first 12 innings of work, he’s allowed just one run, just five hits and just nine baserunners. Oh, and he’s 2-0. Even these days, that ought to count for something.
MLB All-Star Week One starting pitchers, second team
The San Diego Padres basically stole Sean Manaea from Oakland, and they’ve wasted little time reaping the benefits of that theft.
Manaea’s first two starts lasted 13.2 innings in which he’s allowed just four hits and just two runs. He’s only carrying a 1-1 record because Webb and the Giants beat him 2-1 April 13.
Pablo Lopez may turn out to be Miami’s ace. In two starts, 10.1 innings, he’s allowed just one run and seven hits, good for a 0.87 ERA.
In his fifth season as part of Miami’s rotation, Lopez has pretty much improved steadily, getting his ERA down to 3.07 in 2021. If he gets much better, fans of opposing teams will soon begin to think of Lopez as legit.
Logan Gilbert is a 25-year-old second-year pitcher who could be a key to a Mariners’ breakthrough. In his first two starts, he’s allowed just one earned run and seven hits, working out to a 0.90 ERA. His .456 ERA+ is exceeded only by Bassitt.
In preseason estimates, you could have bought the entire Cincinnati Reds pitching staff for a figurative nickel. Tyler Mahle is trying to change that narrative.
The 5 best players to ever suit up for the Cardinals and Cubs. dark. Next
In Mahle’s two starts, covering nine innings, he allowed just seven hits. Unfortunately, an error in Mahle’s April 12 start permitted three unearned runs to score and turned Mahle’s second victory into a no-decision.