{"id":926763,"date":"2026-07-11T01:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/926763\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T01:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:34:37","slug":"herrera-rafaela-martinez-murakami-named-all-star-replacements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/926763\/","title":{"rendered":"Herrera, Rafaela, Martinez, Murakami named All-Star replacements"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS —Cardinals<\/a> catcher Iv\u00e1n Herrera<\/a>was named Friday to the National League All-Star team as an injury replacement for Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> two-way star Shohei Ohtani<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Rays<\/a>pitcher Nick Martinez<\/a>,Boston Red Sox<\/a>outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela<\/a> and Chicago White Sox<\/a> rookie first baseman Munetaka Murakami<\/a> were named injury replacements in the American League.<\/p>\n

All four players are first-time selections. The All-Star Game is Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

“It’s a dream,” the 26-year-old Herrera said. “Everybody thinks about going to an All-Star Game. You just can’t describe the feelings. I’m just excited for it and trying to take it all in right now.”<\/p>\n

The Panama native entered Friday batting .249 with 11 homers, 40 RBIs and a .780 OPS. He has been hit by pitches a league-leading 24 times this season.<\/p>\n

St. Louis signed Herrera as a 16-year-old undrafted free agent in 2016, and he will be joined by two first-time All-Star teammates, Jordan Walker<\/a> and Riley O’Brien<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ohtani is having fluid drained from his left knee, forcing him to miss the All-Star Game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Murakami also will compete in the Home Run Derby. He was a star in Japan before signing with the White Sox and returned to action Friday after missing more than a month with a strained right hamstring. He entered Friday hitting .240 with 20 home runs and 41 RBIs.<\/p>\n

Murakami replacesMinnesota Twins<\/a>center fielder Byron Buxton<\/a>, who has a right hip impingement.<\/p>\n

Martinez replaces Boston pitcher Ranger Su\u00e1rez<\/a>, who spent his first nine seasons withPhiladelphia<\/a>before signing with the Red Sox during the offseason. Rafaela will fill in for eight-time All-Star and three-time American League MVP Aaron Judge<\/a> of the New York Yankees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Suarez went on the injured list with a strained left groin Thursday. Judge has not played since late May because of a stress fracture of a rib on his right side.<\/p>\n

Rafaela is hitting a career-best .286 with eight homers, 39 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. He becomes the third All-Star from the Red Sox, joining closer Aroldis Chapman<\/a> and first baseman Willson Contreras<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Martinez entered Friday’s start againstSeattle<\/a>with the league’s ninth-lowest ERA among qualified pitchers at 2.61, He’s allowed three or fewer runs in 16 of 17 starts this season.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS —Cardinals catcher Iv\u00e1n Herrerawas named Friday to the National League All-Star team as an injury replacement…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":926764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[373851,1281,1274,5723,373849,373850,1266,314922,50,172309,62,3692,1289,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-926763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-373851","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-espn","tag-herrera-ivan","tag-martinez-nick","tag-mlb","tag-murakami-munetaka","tag-news","tag-rafaela-ceddanne","tag-sports","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116898776063589050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}