Red Sox manager on bloated All-Star rosters: ‘There’s too many All-Stars’

Before Sunday s championship Alex Cora was petitioned about his memory of the All-Star Challenge at Fenway Park which was played exactly years prior The Red Sox manager pointed to seeing Ted Williams greeted on the field by all of the battle s best players before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch which he called a special moment in the sport s history Without prompting Cora then offered a lament regarding the state of the All-Star Challenge in current times Related Articles Coming off lost year Red Sox starter finishing first half on a high note Red Sox lineup Sox looking for th straight win in last encounter before break MLB Draft Preview Everything Red Sox fans need to know ahead of draft Red Sox starter Hunter Dobbins leaves match due to injury in second inning Red Sox ace pulls out of All-Star Meeting to rest up for second half It should be like that every time I think the All-Star Challenge is a special one I understand and we re living through it with our ace he went nine the previous evening and he s not going to pitch in the All-Star Encounter but I think we ve got to do a better job to get the best of the best out there Cora declared referring to Garrett Crochet I don t know if moving it back to Wednesday or making it a whole week event or something but there s too several All-Stars Since its inception the All-Star Event has aimed to showcase the sport s best on the same field at once but whether because of injuries or other factors numerous players selected in a given year don t participate That results in numerous replacement players being added to the roster and this year the total number of All-Stars has reached including who have opted out One particularly controversial replacement was made over the weekend when Milwaukee rookie Jacob Misiorowski was selected as an All-Star despite having only five MLB appearances and innings to his name Two of the Red Sox s three All-Star selections have elected not to participate as well Alex Bregman won t play because he was just activated from the injured list and Crochet opted out of the event in order to rest up after pitching innings in the first half Veteran closer Aroldis Chapman is expected to be the lone Red Sox athlete to take part in Tuesday s event which will be played at Truist Park in Atlanta starting at p m