Matt Holliday and Jason Bay have signed, but the free agent market is still littered with former All-Stars. Most of these players won't make another All-Star team, but lots of them can still be useful contributors. Take John Smoltz, for example. He lost his first All-Star Game to Nolan Ryan two decades ago, in 1989. Like many players below, Smoltz is past his prime but could help teams win.
They're not the best players around, or even the best free agents, but here's the complete list of free agents who have been selected to at least one All-Star Game. These 37 players have been chosen for the Midsummer Classic 92 times in total:
- One – Rich Aurilia, Aaron Boone, Paul Byrd, Tony Clark, Joe Crede, Shawn Estes, Cliff Floyd, Geoff Jenkins, Felipe Lopez, Mike MacDougal, Eric Milton, Chan Ho Park, Odalis Perez, Mark Prior
- Two – Hank Blalock, Bartolo Colon, Johnny Damon, Carlos Delgado, Jermaine Dye, Darin Erstad, Brian Giles, Mike Hampton, Livan Hernandez, Orlando Hudson, Jason Isringhausen, Mark Mulder, Dmitri Young
- Three - Garret Anderson, Eric Gagne, Tom Gordon, Jason Schmidt
- Four - Troy Percival
- Five - Mike Sweeney
- Six - Nomar Garciaparra
- Eight - Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz
- Nine - Gary Sheffield
Didn’t Aaron Boone retire?
Yea lol he is not
Yea lol he is not
Gary Sheffield’s been to more All-Star games than Pedro Martinez? That’s a crime.
Not really, looking at Pedro’s career seasons it makes sense.
Anyone know if Nomar Garciaparra has been talking to teams or what he’s asking?
Old age, steroids, over-pricing, injuries, statistical drop-off = irrelevance. There is a reason each one of these players is unsigned.
Sorry, double post.
Thats a joke that Mike Sweeney made it 5 times simply because his team sucked.
Mike Sweeney was beast in his prime.
For three of his appearances, he truly did deserve them, but his last two, there were players on those teams having much better years than him, it was simply the voters being lazy and going for pure name recognition.
Troy Percival retired
Sheffield could be a good pick-up on a minor league deal. Don’t know if he would accept any minor league deal, but he would provide good pop from the bench.
Also, if Pedro lowers his asking price from $5MM to about $2MM, the Yankees could use a veteran #5 starter/pitching depth.
If Hughes struggles as a starter you could stick Pedro in there and let Hughes, Joba and Mo dominate the 7th, 8th and 9th. Basically it would be a 6 inning game.
Pedro might realistically sign for $2M …
… on August 31.
Tony Clark? Really??? I thought he was ready to retire YEARS ago!
Wouldn’t mind Dimitri Young on a minor league deal. He just needs to stop eating so much.
Agreed. He’s at 350 lbs. now but he can’t help it. He has diabetes. Although I would love to see him make a comeback. He’s one of the better characters and club house guys this game has ever seen.
Yeah, he does I think the Nats took him off the team since he was overweight.
Well they purchased his contract out of spring training last year but it was at that time where he realized he couldn’t play so instead of releasing him, they just kept him on the DL the whole season hoping that there would be a chance he could play. Maybe he should go to that conditioning program that Vlad went to this off-season.
Agreed, good hitter, but doesn’t seem to fir the positions he plays.
Would anyone consider signing Mark Prior?
I would love to see the Yanks pick up Garciappara to round off the bench. Pena is a great defensive replacement in the IF but the Yanks are really lacking offense on the bench aside from Winn who I hope is being brought in as a 4th OF rather than a starter ahead of Gardner. Would love to see Nomar starting at 3B or SS on days when Jeter or Arod need a rest.
Nomar as a yankee ? I’d love to see that.
I’ve always found it interesting that making the All-Star team only requires that you have a good first half. The second half, where playing well really matters as the playoffs get closer, doesn’t matter in terms of the All-Star game. 😛 So all you need to do to get on the All-Star team is have a decent first-half…hehe. While the Pro Bowl is a useless game, and I hate it in general, the one good thing is that its based on a whole season of effort rather than just half. 😛
What you say is true, although to be fan-voted on to the All-Star *starting* team, all you need is to have a good first-half …. of your career. How many starters in recent history have been voted on purely on the basis of their historical stats and/or popularity? Some have even been on the DL for a good part of the first-half.
There really should be a player/manager/coach voting component for the starters, although I’m sure Gillette (or whoever is sponsoring the fan vote these days) would certainly object.
example-Josh Hamilton!
example-Josh Hamilton!
I thought the vast majority of these guys were retired/fossilized/dead.
I thought the vast majority of these guys were retired/fossilized/dead.
I can see Cardinals in talk with Garciaperra. He might be a cheaper route then taking Lopez.
im doubtful they want to add fuel to the fire on the whole steroid thing right now.
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Sheff has something left in the bat, someone should scoop him up to DH. The Mariners might fit the bill.
Did anyone notice that they dont know how to count they left out 7 lol
Interesting to see if someone can lure Bartolo in a minor league deal. He actually was decently effective last year before got hurt, and could provide some pitching depth.
i’m being honest here, you can’t forget David Weathers, he could help out a bullpen
how much is he really going to help a bullpen at age 41….and if he goes to a NL central team, pujols will crush him everytime.
i know lots of people can help a BP at old ages ( hoffman, Mo, smoltz ) but weathers isn’t on the same level as those guys..he’s done.