The All-IL team: As more MLB stars go down, building an All-Star team of injured players

New York Times

2 days ago

What a week it's been — and not in a good way.
Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale was in the ninth inning of another dominant start when he came off the mound to make a diving play and fractured his rib cage. Baltimore Orioles All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman was taking batting practice, strained his oblique, and landed on the IL for the first time in his career. Arizona Diamondbacks superstar Corbin Carroll was hit by a pitch, went for an MRI five days later, and discovered a chip fracture in his wrist. Los Angeles Angels shortstop Zach Neto, having a career year after offseason shoulder surgery, was pulled off the field because of pain in that same shoulder.
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Is it just us, or is MLB's Injured List especially loaded these days?
Sale, Rutschman, Carroll and Neto are first-round picks among the best players on their teams — if not in the sport — and they've joined a league-wide IL that until Wednesday included five of the last 10 Cy Young winners, a two-time MVP, one of the game's best left-handed hitters, and enough high-end third basemen to keep Rafael Devers from playing the hot corner for two different teams.
The first round of All-Star voting is coming to a close this week, and as it turns out, we could make a pretty impressive All-Star team from the players who are currently hurt or rehabbing. We'll call it the All-IL team.
Chris Sale (Braves), Blake Snell (Dodgers), Corbin Burnes (Diamondbacks), Cole Ragans (Royals), Hunter Greene (Reds)
Starting pitchers are notoriously injury prone, but even in that context, the list of currently injured starters is staggering. It's long enough — and good enough — to put together multiple rotations that would be among the best in the game.
Want a rotation of all Cy Young winners? How about Sale, Snell, Burnes, Shane Bieber and — until he made his second start of the season on Wednesday — Max Scherzer?
Looking for younger, would-be Cy Young contenders? Greene, Ragans, Shane McClanahan, Shota Imanaga and Michael King are all on the IL.
Proven veterans? Yu Darvish, Tyler Glasnow, Nathan Eovaldi, Aaron Nola and Pablo Lopez.
Exciting young arms? Roki Sasaki, Luis Gil, Jackson Jobe, Jared Jones and Grayson Rodriguez.
We could build an IL rotation of guys coming off breakout seasons (Sean Manaea, Tanner Houck, Reese Olson, Ben Lively, Bryce Miller), or guys who have been hurt for far too long (Lance McCullers, Brandon Woodruff, Tony Gonsolin, Alex Cobb, Max Meyer). We could even build one of accomplished pitchers we've so far failed to mention (Justin Steele, Kodai Senga, Tyler Mahle, Cristian Javier, Joe Musgrove). Point is, there's a ton of pitching talent on the IL at the moment. Senga and Eovaldi have the lowest ERAs in the majors among pitchers with at least 40 innings. Mahle and King were making a case for their first All-Star selections. Sale was making a valiant attempt to defend his first Cy Young award. For now, all are out of the mix.
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Adley Rutschman (Orioles)
Four teams have lost a key backstop in the past month. The Athletics lost catcher Shea Langeliers in early June, around the same time that Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno broke his hand (though Moreno played through it for a few weeks before being shut down). Last week, Rutschman got hurt on the same day that the St. Louis Cardinals put catcher/DH Iván Herrera — amid a terrific, potentially All-Star-worthy season at the plate — on the IL with a Grade 2 hamstring strain. The bright side of such setbacks: The early-season injuries to Braves catcher Sean Murphy and Red Sox catcher Connor Wong opened the door to playing time for Drake Baldwin and Carlos Narváez, each of whom has been excellent. Time will tell whether replacements can do nearly that well in Baltimore, Arizona and Sacramento.
Bryce Harper (Phillies)
Young Otto Kemp has been a solid placeholder, but it's hard to replace a two-time MVP. Harper has been on the IL with a sore wrist since June 7. The Phillies have played well in his absence to move into first place, but Harper remains their best hitter this side of Kyle Schwarber (entering Wednesday, Harper was tied for the second-most homers on the team despite having the eighth-most at-bats). The Boston Red Sox lost first baseman Triston Casas for the year on May 2, the Orioles likely won't have Ryan Mountcastle until after the trade deadline, and the Rangers lost offseason addition Jake Burger to an oblique strain last week. Those three teams have struggled far more without their first basemen than the Phillies have without Harper, but Harper remains one of the game's singular talents.
Ha-Seong Kim (Rays), Ezequiel Tovar (Rockies)
The Rays are still waiting for one of the biggest offseason additions to make his organizational debut. Kim signed a two-year, $29-million deal this winter and could be a significant offensive upgrade at shortstop (he could also help at second when defensive-minded Taylor Walls is at short). Kim has been on a rehab assignment and could join the Rays relatively soon, a welcome addition as they've played their way back into playoff contention. Can't say the same for Tovar, who's coming off a terrific, Gold Glove season but has played only 32 games this year because of hip and oblique injuries. His return is unclear, and the Rockies are thoroughly out of the running anyway. The Kansas City Royals are also without second baseman Michael Massey, the Athletics don't have young infielder Zack Gelof, the Houston Astros have former Gold Glove winner Brendan Rodgers on the IL, and the Angels are still hoping Neto's injury is relatively minor.
Alex Bregman (Red Sox), Matt Chapman (Giants)
Only one third baseman, you say? Fine. You pick. Bregman was everything the Red Sox hoped he would be before he strained his quad on May 23. Bregman has yet to ramp up to baseball activities. Chapman was having another excellent all-around season (12 homers, six defensive runs saved) before hurting his hand diving into first base on June 8. He's doing light swinging. Both have been worth 2.4 fWAR this season, and neither the Red Sox nor Giants has put Devers at third base in their place. While Bregman and Chapman are two of the best third basemen in baseball, plenty of other teams are missing talent at the hot corner. The Minnesota Twins are without Royce Lewis (again), the New York Mets have been without Mark Vientos (who was a star of last year's postseason and is set to return later this week), and the Angels have neither Anthony Rendon nor Yoán Moncada (shocking, we know).
Corbin Carroll (Diamondbacks), Daulton Varsho (Blue Jays), Victor Robles (Mariners)
Carroll, one of the game's great young talents, is going to miss an undetermined amount of time with a broken hand. Varsho, one of the game's great defenders, is on the IL for the second time this season, this time with a hamstring strain (he missed most of April recovering from shoulder surgery). The third name listed could be Varsho's teammate Anthony Santander, who's out with his own shoulder issue, but Santander was so bad the first two months of the season that it's hard to label him as one of the top outfielders on the IL at the moment. Robles, though, was coming off a breakout 2024 season — which led to a two-year contract extension — but he dislocated his shoulder just 10 games into the season. The Mariners need all the offense they can get, and the Robles injury has left them without one of their best bats. Orioles offseason addition Tyler O'Neill, Nationals touted prospect Dylan Crews, and one of the Miami Marlins' best young hitters, Griffin Conine, have also missed significant time this season.
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Yordan Alvarez (Astros)
A broken hand seems likely to keep Alvarez from making his fourth straight All-Star team. The game's best DH not named Shohei Ohtani was initially diagnosed with a muscle strain before further testing revealed a small fracture. Without him, baseball has missed one of its premier left-handed sluggers. The Red Sox (Masataka Yoshida), Rangers (Joc Pederson) and Mets (Jessie Winker) are also without key left-handed designated hitters. The Angels have been without right-handed DH Jorge Soler since mid-June, and the Rockies have been without veteran Kris Bryant since mid-April.
Blake Treinen (Dodgers), Evan Phillips (Dodgers), Justin Martinez (Diamondbacks), Jordan Hicks (Red Sox), Jason Foley (Tigers)
We could literally fill an entire pitching staff with injured Dodgers. The team has 13 pitchers on the IL, including at least three would-be key pieces of their bullpen in Treinen, Phillips and Brusdar Graterol. The Red Sox have yet to use Hicks (who was hurt when they acquired him in the Devers trade), and they've been without key late-inning arms Liam Hendriks and Justin Slaten since the end of May. Martinez was among the most recent high-leverage relievers to go down (part of a recent flurry of injuries for a Diamondbacks team already without lefty A.J. Puk, who is out for the season). The Tigers haven't had either of their past two closers, Foley or Alex Lange this season, but they remain in first place all the same.
(Top photo of Sale: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)