The Red Sox Free Agent All-Stars! (2026 Update)

 

Over the weekend, MLB announced the full AL and NL squads for this year's All-Star game. Three Red Sox players made this year's team: starting pitcher Ranger Suarez, closer Ardolis Chapman, and 1st baseman Willson Contreras. Suarez was Boston's big free agent signing over the winter, an unexpected pivot when Boston failed to sign a premium hitter like Pete Alonso or Alex Bregman (neither of whom made the All-Star team I might add).

 

It reminded me of a post I did 3 years ago when closer Kenley Jansen made the All-Star team. His selection led me to wonder how often a free agent signed by the Red Sox made the All-Star team in his first year with Boston. You can't make a better first impression than that! I updated that post just last year when Bregman and Chapman joined the list.

I figured I might as well update the list once again. According to my research, Suarez represents the 13th time the Red Sox have signed a free agent and had that player make the All-Star team in his first year. It's an unusual group of guys, from a future first ballot Hall of Famer to a couple of guys even hardcore Red Sox fans might not remember. 

Bill Campbell, RP, 1977

 

1977 Topps #166 Bill Campbell

 

The first big free agent signing by the Red Sox turned out well. After winning the very first Rolaids Relief Award in 1976 for the Twins, Campbell signed a 5 year contract with Boston. He made his only All-Star team in 1977, and finished the year leading the league in saves and winning the Rolaids Award again.

Erik Hanson, SP, 1995

 

1995 Upper Deck #483 Erik Hanson (TR)

 

Probably the oddest entry in this list, Hanson signed a one-year contract prior to the 1995 season. He made his only All-Star squad en route to a 15-5 season, parlayed that into a multi-year contract with Toronto, and ended up as one of the worst free agent signings in franchise history. 

 

Jose Offerman, 2B, 1999

 

2000 Upper Deck
#61 Jose Offerman (AS)

 

The Red Sox badly needed a second baseman and lead-off hitter. They thought they were getting both when they signed Jose Offerman to a 4-year deal. His first season was actually pretty solid, and he made the All-Star team as a reserve. Wheels completely fell off after that, and he became Jose "Awful-man" to the Boston fandom.

 

Manny Ramirez, OF, 2001

 

2002 Ultra
#206 Manny Ramirez (AS)

 

Arguably the greatest free agent signing in Red Sox history. Not only did Manny make the All-Star team during his first year in Boston, he made the All-Star team every single season of his 8-year contract. Outside of his personality shortcomings and PED usage, he was (statistically) worth every penny.

 

Johnny Damon, OF, 2002

 

2002 Fleer Tradition Update
#U327 Johnny Damon (AS)

 

Lightning struck twice as for the second straight year, Boston signed an outfielder who became an All-Star. Damon was actually the very first AL player to earn an All-Star nod by the now-defunct "All-Star Final Vote" gimmick  (beating out Jim Thome, Eric Chavez, Magglio Ordonez, and Darin Erstad).

 

Matt Clement, SP, 2005

 

2005 Topps Updates & Highlights
- All-Star Stitches #ASR-MCL
Matt Clement (MEM)

 

Clement was one of a handful of starters the World Champion Red Sox signed in an attempt to replace the departing Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe. He had a great first half of the 2005 season, going 10-2 and being named as a replacement for the injured Roy Halladay. Shortly after the All-Star break, he was struck in the head by a line drive and was never effective again.

 

Hideki Okajima, RP, 2007

 

2007 Topps Updates & Highlights
#UH247 Hideki Okajima (AS)

 

Prior to the 207 season, Boston made international news by signing a star pitcher from Japan. Who would have thought their second, less herald Japanese import would be the one to make the All-Star team? Okajima was fantastic out of the bullpen, and like Damon before him was named the winner of that year's "Final Vote", although he didn't get in the game. Later that year, he became the first Japanese pitcher to pitch in the World Series.

 

Adrian Beltre, 3B, 2010

 

2010 Topps Update
#US-328 Adrian Beltre (AS)

 

There was a time when no one, and I mean no one, thought of Adrian Beltre as a Hall of Fame player. I'm not saying that the one-year pillow contract he signed with the Red Sox in 2010 jump-started his Hall of Fame candidacy, but without that one amazing season in Boston, the Rangers would never have known what he was capable of. Why the Red Sox let him go after that I'll never understand...

 

J.D. Martinez, DH, 2018

 

2019 Topps Heritage
#359 J.D. Martinez (AS)

 

J.D. Martinez was one of the most impactful signings in franchise history. The professional hitter at the heart of one of the greatest Red Sox teams ever, Martinez made the All-Star team every single year of his 5-year contract aside from the 2020 season (when the All-Star Game was cancelled).

 

Kenley Jansen, RP, 2023

 

2024 Topps Pristine
#297 Kenley Jansen

There were many raised eyebrows at his nomination. Stat-wise, he was solid but unspectacular. One could even argue that he was not the most deserving reliever on the team. Yet, his inclusion was merited as the Red Sox lone representative that year. The Red Sox hadn't had a true closer since Craig Kimbrel, and the future Hall of Famer helped turn the Boston bullpen into a strength. 

 

Alex Bregman, 3B, 2025

 

2025 Topps Update - 2025 All-Star Game
#ASG-41 Alex Bregman

 

Bregman was an interesting selection, mainly because he hadn't played in the 6 weeks prior to his selection! It's unusual to have someone who has missed that much time be considered an All-Star. Yet, he was so incredible at the start of the season that even with all that time missed, he was still 2nd among AL 3rd basemen in WAR, and top-6 in HR and RBI. 

 

Aroldis Chapman, RP, 2025

 

2025 Topps Chrome Update - 2025 All-Star Game
#ASGC-50 Aroldis Chapman

Like Jansen before him, Chapman's 1 year contract the previous off-season was one of those minor transactions that wasn't shaking the landscape. Since his last All-Star selection in 2021, he had been on a journeyman's path with stops with 5 different teams. In his two years with Boston, he's turned back the clock with his best seasons since his days in Cincinati! Oh and he recently broke the all-time strikeout record for relievers this year too.

 

Ranger Suarez, SP, 2026

 

2026 Topps #440 Ranger Suarez

 

Although  Suarez has had a solid season so far, many Red Sox fans were surprised he's earned the nod over fellow starter Sonny Gray, who was leading the AL with 10 wins. Suarez was injured and couldn't play the last time he made an All-Start team in 2024, and unfortunately lightning might have struck twice, as he left his last start early with a left groin strain. (Update: He was placed on the 15-day IL yesterday..)

Repack Haiku #468 (Jordan Hicks)

One hundred and five!

Few have reached this on radar

Hicks is one of them

 

2024 Topps Holiday #H51 Jordan Hicks

 

Milwaukee Brewers' pitcher Jacob Misiorowski made the news recently when he threw a pitch that registered 105.5 MPH - a record for a starting pitcher. In the 18 years that MLB has been tracking these speeds, only 4 pitchers have recorded a pitch of at least 105MPH. Hicks accomplished the feat in 2018 as a member of the Cardinals.

 

Source: Fastest pitches in MLB history: Where does Jacob Misiorowski rank? (USA Today) 

Hall Of Fame Top 5: Jeff Kent

 

On July 26th, the Hall of Fame will officially recognize 3 new members. As I have done in years past, I will be honoring these great ball players in my own way throughout the month. I'm starting things off with the lone inductee nominated by the Contemporary Era Baseball Committee, Jeff Kent.  In tribute to his extraordinary career, I humbly present my 5 favorite cards of his that I own:

 

1993 Leaf #185 Jeff Kent

Kent initially came up with the Blue Jays, but was traded to the Mets in 1992 for David Cone. It was in New York that he started to establish himself as an offensive player, twice hitting 20 home runs in a season. (Something he would do 12 times over his career).

 

1993 Topps #703 Jeff Kent (ASR) 

Thirty-seven players named to the Topps All-Star Rookie Team have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Ironically, Kent's Hall classmates Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltran also have earned this distinction.

 

 

1994 Collector's Choice #159 Jeff Kent 

Although he hit well for a under-performing Mets team, he was not a good fielder, leading NL second baseman in errors in back-to-back years, and 4 times overall. His offensive production more than made up for his defensive shortcomings.

 

2001 Upper Deck Victory #407 Jeff Kent 

 

After a short stint in Cleveland, Kent joined Barry Bonds and the Giants. It was here that he solidified himself as one of baseball's greats, winning the MVP in 2000 and making 3 out of his 5 All-Star appearances. It was also here that Kent's reputation as someone generally disliked by teammates, fans, and media was put on full display, culminating with a very famous dugout fight with teammate Bonds.

 

2007 Topps #102 Jeff Kent  

After a brief stop in Houston, where he topped Ryne Sandberg's mark for most home runs by a second baseman, Kent finished his career by spending 4 years with the Dodgers. He made his final All-Star game start in 2005, becoming the first player to start an All-Star game for both the the Dodgers and their historic rival Giants. He finished his career after the 2008 season. In addition to his home run record, he also has the second highest slugging percentage at the position, and his ranked third in extra base hits and RBI.

 

Congrats on your accomplishment Jeff Kent. Welcome to the Hall! 

Counting The Traffic Light Colors In 2026 Topps

Now that Series 2 has been out for awhile now, I can do something that struck me as funny. In 2021, the Red Sox became the first MLB team to debut the polarizing "City Connect" uniforms for their city. These new uniforms were yellow and blue, honoring the traditional finishing line colors of the Boston Marathon. (Personally, I hated these.)

 

Last year, the Red Sox debuted a new City Connect uniform, the much more popular "Fenway Greens" that matched the color of Fenway park and the in particular the famous "Green Monster" left field wall. (Personally, I liked these.)

 

Along the course of last season, the Red Sox wore green, yellow, and red. This reminded me of a traffic light, and I thought it would be amusing to see how often these colors show up on the Red Sox cards in this year's set. Of course, the standard home whites and road greys were also employed, but would any one color dominate? Let's find out! Here's the official tally from largest quantity to lowest:

 

White - 11 cards*

 

No surprise the whites would be the most popular uniform, despite all the alternate jerseys used during home games.  I'll explain the asterisk a little later.

 

 

Green - 6 cards

 

The Fenway Greens made are well represented after their positive reception among the Red Sox fandom. (FYI, if you've never heard Tolle give an interview, you're missing out on some great stuff. He's quickly becoming a fan favorite not only in Boston but throughout baseball!)

 

 

Yellow - 5 cards

 

This color scheme never grew on me. To be fair, I'm not from Boston and these jerseys were designed to connect to the city, so the reception of native Bostonians matter more here than the opinion of some random fan in another state.

 

 

Red - 3 cards

 

With all these new alternate jerseys to show off and sell, the always popular red alternates took a back seat. I've always thought that a team with "Red" in the name should have uniforms incorporating that color. I've always liked these jerseys.

 

 

Miscellaneous - 2* 

 Two cards in the set don't feature any of the 5 uniforms. One is a candid pre-game photo:

 

While the other, although technically white, is not the same as the normal white uniforms they wore:

 

 

This particular jersey is a "one game only" from Boston's annual Patriot Day game, where they switched out the team name on the front for the city name and wore "Boston Strong" patches.

 

 

Grey - 1 card

 

Just a single card depicting the Red Sox in their traditional road greys, which is ironic since that was the jersey they wore for half of the season.

 

 

Blue - 0 cards

MLB allows a team 5 different uniforms at most, which means that when the newest City Connect uniforms were introduced, the Red Sox officially retired their blue alternate jerseys. I hope some day this will be brought back. For now, Uwasawa is the last Red Sox player to sport the blue in a Topps base or update set.

 

Just curious, any other teams out there with this much color variety? 

 

A happy and safe Independence Day to everyone this weekend! 

Repack Haiku #467 (Joe Johnson)

"One Day In Baseball"

An S.I. story covered

His last big league day

 

1987 Topps Traded #56T Joe Johnson

In July of 1987, Sports Illustrated released an issue dedicated to all the games from a single day (June 21st). A reporter was assigned to each game from that day and wrote about some aspect of that day. Hall of Fame writer Peter Gammons was assigned the game in Toronto, and spent the day with scheduled starter Johnson and his family. Little did anyone know that Johnson would be sent to the minors after that game, and he would never make his way back to the Majors.

 

 

Photo via https://www.ebay.com/itm/186751347187

 

TCDB Trade Recap: Cards From Clark, NJ (AKA The Collector)

Chris (The Collector) was quite a busy person on the TCDB. He posted on the forum that he was attempting to get 60 trades completed in 30 days. That's a lot of postage! I had a few cards he needed, so I did my part to help him reach his goal. Although he didn't have any specific needs of mine, I had no trouble finding cards for him to send my way:

 

The 1986 set is one of those "someday" sets that I'm in no rush to complete, but will pick up cards from when the opportunity strikes. There's some good cards here - a couple of Hall of Famers, plus some underrated minor stars from the 80's.

 

Favorite Card: I have always liked the Team Leaders cards in this set, and the Cubs happen to feature a Hall of Famer!

 

Thanks for the trade Chris, and congrats on reaching your goal! 

Trapped In Time: Remnants Of The 196th - 200th Trades

It's time to clear some more space out of the old Time Travel Trading box! Lots of 70's vintage in this post, including a Hall of Famer! Let's see who needs rescuing...

 

Trade #196 Hal (TCDB)

Traded 08/30/22: 1969 Topps - Deckle Edge #13 Mel Stottlemyre, 1973 Topps #4 John Milner, 1973 Topps #85 Ted Simmons, 1974 Topps - Team Checklists #NNO Los Angeles Dodgers (CL, VAR)

Received 09/17/22:

• 1973 Topps #243 California Angels (TC)
• 1972 Topps #10 Amos Otis (See Trade #233)
• 1972 Topps #34 Billy Martin (IA) (See Trade #349)
• 1968 Topps #493 Jim McGlothlin

Most of the time, team cards do well here. I'm a little surprised this off-center Angels team lasted as long as it has. Former Angel McGlothlin, who had moved on to Cincinnati by the time the team photo was taken, also remains. 

 

Trade #197 Brendan (The View From The Third Floor)

Traded 09/23/22: 1973 Topps (football) #97 Jim Bakken, 1979 Topps (football) #385 Thomas Henderson, 1979 Topps (football) #443 Ron Howard,1980 Topps (football) #45 Bert Jones

 

Received 09/28/22:

• 2015 Stadium Club #15 Adrian Beltre (See Trade #201)
  
• 2014 Topps Allen & Ginter #284 Will Clark (See Trade #233)
• 2011 Topps - Diamond Duos Series 2 #DD-16 Josh Hamilton/Joey Votto (See Trade #202)
• 1995 Upper Deck - Special Edition (football) #SE20 Alvin Harper (See Trade #206)
  
• 1993 Score - Dream Team (football) #2 Emmitt Smith (See Trade #206)
• 1993 Score - Dream Team (football) #Barry Foster (See Trade #206)
• 1993 Score - Dream Team (football) #21 Chuck Cecil (See Trade #206)
• 1993 Score - Dream Team (football) #22 Steve Atwater (See Trade #206)
• 1993 Score - Dream Team (football) #23 Bryan Cox (See Trade #206)
• 1993 Score - Dream Team (football) #24 Derrick Thomas (See Trade #206)
• 1993 Score - Dream Team (football) #26 Sam Mills (See Trade #206)
• 1979 Topps #317 Jose Cardinal
• 1974 Topps #412 Chuck Taylor
• 1973 Topps #156 Cesar Geronimo (See Trade #396)
• 1970 Topps #127 Joe Coleman

 

Brendan (The View From The Third Floor) sent a lot of great cards in this trade, yet a handful have fallen through the cracks. Weird to think the last real Expos game was 22 years ago...

 

Trade #198 Bo (Baseball Cards Come To Life!) 

Traded 09/23/22: 1964 Topps #58 Don Demeter, 1970 Topps (football) #41 Pete Case, 1973 Topps (football) #83 Larry Carwell, 1977 Topps (football) #487 Jack Rudnay, 1977 Topps (football) #507 Ray Easterling (RC), 1994 Ted Williams #46 Earl Battey, 1999 Pacific #216 Alex Cora, 2010 Topps - Cards Your Mom Threw Out #CMT-20 Thurman Munson (ASR), 2012 Topps Archives #12 Pablo Sandoval, 2014 Topps Allen & Ginter #284 Will Clark, 2015 Topps - Highlight of The Year #H-29 Justin Verlander, 2016 Topps Allen & Ginter - The Numbers Game #NG-56 Miguel Cabrera, 2016 Topps Heritage - Then And Now #TAN-KV Harmon Killebrew/Joey Votto, 2017 Topps Bunt - Programs #PR-AW Adam Wainwright, 2020 Topps Update - Turkey Red 2020 Chrome #TRC-28 Andy Pettitte

 

Received 10/03/22:

• 2013 Topps #219 Josh Beckett (See Trade #255)
• 2013 Topps #220 Octavio Dotel (See Trade #255)
• 2013 Topps #228 Adrian Gonzalez (See Trade #255)
• 2013 Topps #233 Edwin Jackson (See Trade #255)
• 2013 Topps #257 Mike Minor (See Trade #255)
• 2013 Topps #259 Bartolo Colon (See Trade #202)
  
• 1982 Topps (football) #44 Cris Collinsworth (RC) (See Trade #203)
  
• 1982 Topps (football) #171 Joe Klecko (AP) (See Trade #203)
• 1981 Topps (football) #487 Rod Martin (RC) (See Trade #203)
• 1981 Topps (football) #520 Fred Dean (AP) (See Trade #203)
• 1972 Topps #26 Andy Etchebarren
• 1972 Topps #53 Bud Harrelson
• 1972 Topps #62 Angel Mangual (ASR) (See Trade #349)
• 1969 Topps #53 Sonny Jackson (See Trade #262)
• 1963 Topps #72 Johnny Romano (See Trade #222)

 

A couple of 1972 Topps are all that remain from this trade with Bo (Baseball Cards Come To Life!). I doubt you will find a greater discrepancy in eyebrow sizes than between these two fine gents...

 

Trade #199 Jon (A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts)

Traded 09/23/22: 1979 Topps (football) #415 Cliff Branch, 1982 Topps (football) #56 Lyle Alzado

 

Received 10/08/22: 

• 1974 Topps #220 Don Sutton (See Trade #251)
  
• 1974 Topps #470 1973 A.L. Playoffs (ALCS)

 

 

I'm not going to lie, the fact a Reggie Jackson card has languished for so long perplexes me. Sure the card itself has seen better days, but it's still a Reggie in Oakland gold and green! Can't say I'll be disappointed if this one ends up with my '74's.

 

Trade #200 Greg (Night Owl Cards)

Traded 09/23/22:  1976 Topps (football) #336 Woody Green (RC), 1976 Topps (football) #361 Po James, 1984 O-Pee-Chee #175 Graig Nettles, 1986 Topps Baseball Champion Superstars #18 Fred Lynn, 1989 Score #495 Larry Parrish

 

Received 10/17/22:  

• 1985 Drake's Big Hitters #22 Dave Parker (See Trade #212)
• 1983 Topps The A-Team (non-sport) #53 Roll Out!
• 1979 Kellogg's #59 Ron Jackson (VAR) (See Trade #254)
• 1970 Topps #517 Joe Gibbon (See Trade #375)
• 1970 Topps (football) #119 George Byrd (See Trade #212)

 

 

One last one, courtesy of Greg (Night Owl Cards). Personally I loved this show growing up, but never had any of the cards when they were released. It's going to be tough to move this one.Most people on the TCDB with this card in their want list haven't logged in recently enough to be worth sending a trade offer to. Perhaps a reader here will take a truck in mid-flip off my hands?

 

Last call for these cards! Just offer something older!