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Red Sox Xander Bogaerts Is Sporting News 2015 All-Star

By Brandon Nickel

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Better late than never, even if it wasn’t Major League Baseball to pick him.

Boston Red Sox star shortstop Xander Bogaerts was named a member of Sporting News‘ American League All-Star team for 2015. Mike Cole of NESN also reported about the publication, stating that “Bogaerts and the rest of the All-Stars were selected before the playoffs by a panel of 22 AL executives.”

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Bogaerts was a noticeable snub in July, not qualifying for the 2015 All-Star Game even though he was fifth overall in the majors for batting average (.320). Only Triple-Crown winner Miguel Cabrera (.338), Dee Gordon (.333), Bryce Harper (.330), and Paul Goldschmidt (.321) had better averages. The closest shortstop to Bogaerts was Troy Tulowitzki (.280). Bogaerts also had the best on-base percentage (.355) and second-best RBI total (81) for the position. Even his fielding percentage (.984) was good enough for seventh overall.

Only two shortstops were chosen for the MLB All-Star team: Alcides Escobar and Jose Iglesias. Escobar’s bat was nowhere near as good as Bogaerts, which has been reported by this media platform before, while his excellent defensive skills are fairly even to the Red Sox player. Iglesias’ slash line this season was .300/.347/.370 with two home runs and 23 RBIs in 120 games. And, a .977 fielding percentage is nice, but still falls short of both Bogaerts and Escobar.

Yet, those two men made it and Bogaerts didn’t. Bogaerts didn’t even win the fan vote for the last roster spot for the team.

What does a guy like Bogaerts have to do to catch a break?

Here’s what Sporting News came up with for their own 2015 A.L. roster:

While it should be noted that the previous statistics were for the entire season, Bogaerts’ averages were just as good throughout the year, before and after the All-Star Game. While Iglesias was at a .314 batting average to Bogaerts’ .304, the Red Sox shortstop was ahead of both Iglesias and Escobar in all of the same categories at the time.

People can say hindsight is 20/20, but Bogaerts was performing better than almost every player, let alone shortstop, in multiple categories throughout 2015. To say that he was snubbed is an understatement, especially after looking at how he finished the season. At least one publication put him where he belongs, with the rest of the MLB elite.

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