Major League Baseball should be thrilled by Ernie Clement’s shocking All-Star selection

Outside of Canada, few baseball fans may be intimately familiar with Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Ernie Clement.

Clearly, the Great White North is more powerful than we’d have envisioned.

Major League Baseball announced on Thursday that Clement automatically earned an All-Star selection after leading the American League in votes. Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, unsurprisingly, led the National League and will start at DH.

A journeyman minor-league utility infielder, Clement caught on with the Blue Jays midway through spring training in 2023. He’s since provided Toronto with 9.4 bWAR and a .721 OPS, mainly starting at third and second base.

“I got DFA’ed twice,” Clement pointed out. “I’ve been released. I’ve been optioned more times than I can count. But I just stuck around long enough to earn more and more [opportunities].”

Social media might be incredulous at Clement’s achievement, but Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball should love the first confirmed AL All-Star.

Canada is all-in on Ernie Clement and the Toronto Blue Jays

Clement isn’t a household name, and he entered Friday hitting .294 with seven home runs, 28 RBIs, and a .753 OPS. Even with his AL-leading 20 doubles, those aren’t typically numbers you see from even an All-Star reserve, let alone a starter.

So how did a second baseman worth 1.0 bWAR collect the most votes of any American League player? What allowed Clement to beat out Aaron Judge, Yordan Alvarez, and Cody Bellinger?

Easy: Clement had an entire country on his side. 

The Blue Jays have at least one Phase 1 finalist at every position. If All-Star voting ended tomorrow, the Blue Jays would have the starting catcher (Alejandro Kirk), first baseman (Vladimir Guerrero Jr.), and shortstop (Andrés Giménez).

Although Jesús Sánchez ranks fourth among AL outfielders, he’d likely start in Judge’s place.

None of the three leaders would deserve a starting spot, and Kirk’s inclusion would be the most egregious. He missed over two months with a thumb injury and has played just 14 games. The only way he should be at the All-Star Game is as a guest watching from a luxury box. 

Giménez is hitting .231 with a below-average .645 OPS, and he’s managed only 0.5 bWAR over 77 games. Guerrero has a .714 OPS, four home runs, and is on pace for the worst bWAR of his career.

For what it’s worth, FanGraphs values Giménez at 1.3 fWAR and Guerrero at 0.9 fWAR. 

Even as one of the sport’s more recognizable faces, Guerrero Jr. doesn’t even have the statistics to warrant a bench spot. Yet, we could very well see him start over the Yankees’ Ben Rice or the Athletics’ Nick Kurtz.

Can Major League Baseball intervene and stop Blue Jays fans from ballot-stuffing?

Theoretically speaking, there likely is some way that Manfred could step in and replace, say, Kirk and Guerrero in the AL’s starting lineup.

However, don’t plan on Manfred doing so, even if it means seeing a starting catcher hitting below the Mendoza Line.

Because the All-Star Game no longer dictates home-field advantage in the World Series, the game is nothing more than a primetime event on a random July Tuesday night. Interleague play, free agency, and universal DH have stripped away the AL vs. NL sentiments that our parents and grandparents grew up with.

If fans don’t want the AL lineup almost entirely made up of Blue Jays players, then go out and vote. Chances are, the Blue Jays won’t actually have more than four starters, though I acknowledge I may have just jinxed things. 

Canada has bought into the Blue Jays, who nearly ended a 32-year title drought last year. The Blue Jays entered Friday at 39-42 and 9.5 games back in the AL East, though they’re tied for the AL’s third and final Wild Card spot. 

Yes, the American League is that bad. 

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