Texas Rangers: Three players who could be first-time All-Stars

Here are three Texas Rangers players who could be first time All-Star Game selections.

Heading into the 2022 regular season, the Texas Rangers had higher expectations than most teams around the league.

After signing both Marcus Semien and Corey Seager to massive contracts, the club appeared to be setting itself up for contention in the very near future. Here we are, just about two months into the season, and the Rangers are in third place in the AL West, seven games back from the Astros already.

With Semien struggling big time and Seager and other newcomer Kole Calhoun doing everything they can to carry the offense, it’s the pitching that has really stepped up for this Rangers team.

With that being said, Calhoun is the likeliest position player to earn his first career All-Star Game selection … but I don’t think he will get the call. Instead, I believe it will be three pitchers on this Rangers staff who will get serious looks.

Who could be a first-time All-Star this season for the Texas Rangers?

#1 – RHP Joe Barlow (closer)

Joe Barlow is in his second full season at the major league level and has continued his dominance from last season and been step-for-step as good as he was in 2021.

Through 16 games this year, Barlow has earned eight saves and has struck out 17 batters in 16 innings. He has also only allowed five batters and surrendered just two home runs.

After beginning this season with a few rough outings and an ERA that got as high as 6.00, Barlow had a stretch of games between April 16 and May 25 in which he did not allow a single earned run and only allowed two hits during that span.

The 26-year-old righty has a repertoire consisting of three pitches; a four-seam fastball that sits in the mid-to-upper 90s (thrown around 33% of the time), a wipeout slider that sits around 87-90 mph (thrown 55 of the time) and a low-80s changeup (thrown around 12% of the time). He is a power pitcher who effectively limits baserunners and the long ball. He could easily earn a spot on the AL All-Star team this year if he keeps this pace up.

#2 – LHP Brock Burke (long relief)

Relief pitchers who are not closers very rarely make the All-Star Game in a typical year. Rays Swiss army knife Andrew Kittredge in 2021 and Brewers righty Jeremy Jeffress in 2018 are the only recent examples of this that comes to mind.

Enter Rangers lefty Brock Burke. A starting pitcher throughout his entire minor league and major league career to this point, Burke has functioned exclusively as a relief pitcher this season for the club and it has paid off in a big way.

Through 14 games and 24+ innings, Burke has allowed just three earned runs, good for a sparkling 1.09 ERA to go along with a 2.00 FIP and a jaw-dropping 358 ERA+. While this pace may not quite be sustainable, the young lefty has certainly been turning heads.

Burke is still just 25 years of age and may have found his niche on a big league pitching staff. His strikeouts are way up, his HR/9 is way down and he’s even experienced a significant increase in his velocity. His four-seam fastball is up 3mph from his 2019 showing in the big leagues while his slider is up 4mph and his changeup is up nearly 3mph as well.

There may not be a better way to describe Brock Burke than the way Twitter user @greggorox has.