2026 MLB All-Star Game Preview: 10 Storylines To Follow This Week In Philly

This week’s All-Star festivities in Philadelphia will be a hometown showcase. 

The Phillies have two players — Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber — competing in the Home Run Derby on Monday. One day later, four more Phillies players — Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, Brandon Marsh and Jhoan Duran — will be joining Schwarber and Harper at the All-Star Game.

On the American League side, it will also be a return home for Mike Trout, the native of Millville, New Jersey, whose 12th All-Star Game will hold a special meaning.

With All-Star week about to get going, here are 10 storylines to watch.

Rowan Kavner: There are two strong options for American League manager John Schneider. The Yankees’ Cam Schlittler leads AL pitchers in bWAR, ERA and WHIP, while Schneider’s Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease leads AL pitchers in fWAR, strikeouts, strikeout rate and opponents’ batting average. They’ve clearly been the top two pitchers in the AL.

It’s a little more complicated in the National League.

Jacob Misiorowski would have been the obvious choice in the middle of a historically overpowering season. He leads all qualified MLB starters in ERA, strikeouts, WHIP and opponents’ batting average. Shane Bieber (in the shortened 2020 season) and Gerrit Cole (in 2019) are the only qualified starters who have ever logged a strikeout rate higher than Misiorowski’s (39.6%) over the course of a full season.

The only problem? Miz won’t be there. He has been replaced because he will be pitching on Sunday and unavailable for the All-Star Game. Paul Skenes might have made sense, but he will be facing off against Misiorowski on Sunday (and hasn’t had the first-half numbers of other top contenders).

NL manager Dave Roberts told me last week that being the