Eduardo Nunez isn't the reserved type, and that helped him become an All-Star backup

Jesse Spector

Eduardo Nunez isn't the reserved type, and that helped him become an All-Star backup image

Eduardo Nunez is not a star player in the major leagues. He is, however, an All-Star, and that is great.

At the age of 29, Nunez is in the midst of a pretty unremarkable career. He has never played in more than 112 games or made more than 338 plate appearances in a season, both of which he did with the 2011 Yankees. He is poised to eclipse both of those figures this year with the Twins, during a campaign in which he is hitting .315/.341/.479 with a career-high 11 home runs.

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This year's line is nice enough, but at 1.5 WAR, there are plenty of players not on their way to San Diego who have a better resume than Nunez for All-Star consideration, save for one factor: Nunez plays for the Twins.

Every team in the majors gets a representative at the All-Star Game. The Braves are sending ace Julio Teheran. The Reds will be represented by breakout slugger Adam Duvall . The host Padres have Wil Myers . And then there's Nunez, a sort of extremely poor man's Ben Zobrist, with his ability to play multiple positions, put the bat on the ball regularly and hit with a little bit of pop.

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Every team wants a guy like Nunez around to play the role that Nunez plays. It's hardly his fault the Twins have virtually nothing else, and it's good to see him rewarded for his hard work.

You could criticize the system that requires the Twins to have an All-Star selection, but you would be missing the point of the rule. Put aside the fact that the All-Star Game "counts," because that's lip service to Americans' distaste for tie games after the fiasco of 2002. All-Star managers' top priority remains getting as many players in the game as possible, not massaging matchups to win.

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What's great about Nunez going to the Midsummer Classic is that, in this lost season of Minnesota baseball, he has been a beacon of fun. It's in the sublimely awkward way he plays the game, the way he loses his helmet on the basepaths with even the slightest movement, the fact that he's put in the time in the major leagues to finally get an opportunity at playing every day, and is making the most of it.

 

This is not John Scott in the NHL , thrust into the spotlight by the internet. Somewhere in Minnesota, there's a kid whose sum total of joy this summer is watching Eduardo Nunez play baseball. Nunez is the fun player on a bad team that so many of us have fallen in love with at one time or another. For that, it's great to see a non-star be an All-Star.

Jesse Spector