Mitch Moreland
Position: Reserve First Baseman
A case could be made that Mitch Moreland deserves to start for the AL squad. That’s unlikely to happen with Chicago’s Jose Abreu holding a commanding lead at the position. Moreland has fallen behind Houston’s Yuli Gurriel on the latest ballot. That shouldn’t stop Moreland from being rewarded with one of the reserve spots.
An early-season platoon prior to when the Red Sox jettisoned Hanley Ramirez has left Moreland just shy of the plate appearances required to be a qualified hitter. The limited playing time has held him back in the counting stats but his triple slash line is the best at his position. Among AL first baseman with 225+ plate appearances, Moreland is first with a .892 OPS and .538 SLG. He’s also second with a .291 AVG and .354 OBP.
Despite having nearly 100 more at-bats, Abreu only has a marginal edge in runs scored, RBI and home runs. His slash line doesn’t compare favorably and he’s not the elite defensive player that Moreland is. That’s why Moreland’s 1.6 WAR more than double’s Abreu’s 0.6 WAR.
The only area where Abreu has a significant edge in is doubles. He ranks second in the league with 27, nearly doubling Moreland’s total. Something tells me the gap would be closer if Mitchy Two Bags had more plate appearances. That should even out over the course of the season.