Weekend BP: Is 2023 the year that Logan Webb makes the All-Star Game?

Happy weekend, San Francisco Giants fans.

Baseball is almost here. I can taste it. I can feel it. Pitchers and catchers are reporting in just a few weeks.

You know what else happens in a few weeks? The NBA All-Star Game, which has me thinking about ... yes ... the MLB All-Star Game, because I have sports ball brain worms like that.

More specifically, I’m wondering who the Giants All-Star(s) will be in 2023. And even more specifically, I’m wondering if this is the year that Logan Webb makes the All-Star team, after establishing himself as one of the top pitchers in baseball the last two seasons.

Every team is awarded an All-Star every year, a rule that I despise, but that makes this exercise a little more fun. The Giants have mostly avoided the “token All-Star who’s only there because the rules mandate it” player, with Will Smith in 2019 being the only time in recent memory that you could make the case for it.

They project to be good enough in 2023 that they’ll have an honest to goodness All-Star, but they’re also lacking in top end talent, so who knows.

It could be a reliever having a fire first half, like Camilo Doval or Taylor Rogers. Joc Pederson was an All-Star a year ago, and Brandon Crawford the year prior, so I won’t count them out. Michael Conforto seems like someone worth gambling on, and perhaps Mitch Haniger too.

But Webb is the safest bet. He finished eighth among NL pitchers in fWAR a year ago, and, at 26 years old, seems poised to better that feat this year.

Who do you think makes it?