St. Louis Cardinals Shortstop Aledmys Diaz Named to NL All-Star Team

Thursday was a bittersweet day for the St. Louis Cardinals, as Matt Carpenter was placed on the disabled list, but Aledmys Diaz was selected to replace him.

The St. Louis Cardinals were dealt a major blow on Thursday morning, as their best player and sole All-Star representative, Matt Carpenter was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained oblique. There was some good news in the Cardinals clubhouse, though, as it was announced that rookie shortstop Aledmys Diaz will replace Carpenter on the NL All-Star roster.

While his numbers are clearly lagging behind those of Arizona third baseman Jake Lamb and perhaps not as impressive as those of Colorado shortstop Trevor Story, Diaz is very deserving of an All-Star nomination in his own right. In 315 plate appearances, Diaz is hitting .319/.382/.534 with 12 homers. Diaz had his fair share of struggles over the season’s first two months, making 12 errors over that period, but he’s been much smoother since the start of June, committing only three errors since then.

It’s especially exciting that Diaz has been able to become an All-Star considering the journey that he’s been on over the last 15 months.

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Nearly a year ago to the day–on July 8 of last year–Diaz was designated for assignment so that the Cardinals could put journeyman first baseman

on the 40-man roster. It was actually somewhat of an understandable move, considering that Diaz had hit .230/.286/.335 over the first half of his second go-round at Double-A.

After the break, though, Diaz slashed .317/.381/.559 in 41 games, earning a promotion to Triple-A near the end of the season, where he continued to dominate. After being sent to Triple-A to open the 2016 season, Diaz was recalled on April 5–before he ever played a game in the minors–and quickly became the Cardinals’ everyday starting shortstop. Over a banner month of April, Diaz hit .423/.453/.732 with four homers.

Next: Cardinals Place Matt Carpenter on 15-Day DL, Recall Michael McKenry

Diaz is the sixth Cardinals rookie ever to be named an All-Star, and he’s the first since Albert Pujols in 2001.