Casey Mize named to American League All-Star team

Mize will replace Garret Crochet, and that is now six All-Stars for your Detroit Tigers.

The Detroit Tigers were already set to be well represented in the 2025 MLB All-Star game on Tuesday, July 15. Riley Greene, Gleyber Torres, and Javier Báez were voted into the game on the fan ballots, while ace Tarik Skubal was named to the roster as the game’s top pitcher. Zach McKinstry was then named as an injury replacement for Houston Astros ’ shortstop, Jeremy Peña.

Now, Emily Waldon of Baseball America and Tigers Minor League Report reports that starting pitcher Casey Mize will join his teammates at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia for the midsummer classic. He’ll be a replacement for Boston Red Sox ’s starter, Garrett Crochet.

The Tigers even got their ball boy, Frankie Boyd, onto the All-Star ball crew through fan voting.

Mize’s story is just one of many remarkable turnarounds for the Detroit Tigers this season. Báez is a leading candidate as comeback player of the year, while after three years of struggle to establish himself at the game’s highest level, first baseman and former first overall pick Spencer Torkelson is tied with Pete Alonso for the most home runs by a first baseman this year at 21 total.

The line on Mize is more of a late breakout than a comeback story, but after two less than impressive seasons in the major leagues, the 2018 first overall pick out of Auburn missed most of 2022 and all of the 2023 season with UCL reconstruction surgery. He pitched reasonably well in his return to action in 2024, posting a 4.49 ERA and a 3.95 FIP in 102 ¹⁄₃ innings. However, a left hamstring injury saw him miss basically all of July and August, and he ultimately didn’t pitch in the Tigers postseason run.

While he was a solid enough backend starter and showed signs of better to come, the ongoing lack of swing and miss in his game, particularly from the splitter that was his calling card in college, left many feeling as though his potential would never be realized. Mize attacked the offseason, working to rediscover his splitter, get stronger, and devise a better breaking ball. He succeeded on all counts.

The results haven’t exactly been transformative, but he has improved his strikeout rate three percent while trimming his walk rate a little bit in 2025. His fastball and a rebuilt pair of sliders have been more effective. The splitter has had its moments, but continues to lag behind his other pitches despite finding a little more swing and miss and weak contact from left-handed hitters.

Overall, Mize has continued to battle issues with his left hamstring and hasn’t been able to really get in a good groove since returning from another IL stint from May 9-24 for the recurring injury. His results have been good, as evidenced by his 2.63 ERA, but the underlying numbers in his 3.79 FIP say he’s been better this year, but still needs to put the injuries behind him to get into a sustained groove and start punching out more hitters to solidify himself as a frontline starter.

We’ll see if he can get there, but for now the strong results have boosted the Tigers’ rotation through injuries to Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe, along with underperformance from Jack Flaherty. Mize has really backed up Tarik Skubal to keep the rotation going strong, and perhaps if he can finally stay healthy for a sustained stretch, his best is still yet to come.

This is Casey Mize’s first trip to the All-Star game. It’s nice to see the game’s best team this season well represented despite not being in a major market or stockpiled with brand names.