Picking The All-Playoff Team For MLB's 2022 Postseason
The 2022 postseason is winding to a close as the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies battle for MLB supremacy and the right to be called World Series champion.
There are still at least a couple of games to be played before the champagne is popped and the trophy is hoisted, but we've decided to get an early jump on naming our All-Postseason team for the 2022 playoffs.
Ahead we've selected one player from each position, two starting pitchers and a relief pitcher to make up the 2022 All-Postseason Team. Players were chosen based on their overall contributions, signature moments and volume of production, so players failing to advance to at least the League Championship Series faced an uphill battle to earn a spot.
This is subject to change in the coming days, and we'll update this All-Postseason Team as needed, but for now here are our picks.
Catcher: J.T. Realmuto, Philadelphia Phillies
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J.T. Realmuto can sometimes go a bit overlooked playing in the shadow of Bryce Harper, but he's a bona fide superstar in his own right and this postseason has been just another example of his elite-level ability.
He hit .307/.367/.583 after the All-Star break, perhaps playing his way onto a few NL MVP ballots in the process, and finished with a career-high 6.5 WAR in 139 games.
In his first trip to the postseason, he is hitting .265/.345/.469 with three home runs and six RBI, and he was the hero in Game 1 of the World Series. After delivering a two-run double off Justin Verlander in the fifth inning to tie things up 5-5, he hit the game-winning home run leading off the 10th inning.
First Baseman: Rhys Hoskins, Philadelphia Phillies
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First baseman Rhys Hoskins debuted with the Philadelphia Phillies during a 96-loss season in 2017, and he is the team's longest-tenured position player. Enduring those tough times has made this year's success even sweeter.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t think anyone deserves this moment more than Rhys,” teammate J.T. Realmuto told reporters after the Phillies clinched a place in the World Series. “He’s been through so much with this team from start to finish. He’s had his ups. He’s had his downs. He’s always the same guy no matter what’s going on. No matter if the fans are booing him, the media is giving him a tough time, he’s always there answering questions. And he’s the same guy when he’s doing well. He just believes in himself and believes in this team.”
The 29-year-old has five home runs and 11 RBI in 13 games, and he posted a 1.189 OPS with four long balls in the NLCS, including a two-run shot to start the scoring in their Game 5 victory to clinch the NL pennant.
Second Baseman: Jake Cronenworth, San Diego Padres
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Jake Cronenworth has been quietly excellent for the San Diego Padres since breaking into the league with a runner-up finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2020.
He has since posted consecutive 4-WAR seasons while earning a spot on the NL All-Star team in back-to-back years as well, and he posted a 113 OPS+ with 31 doubles, 17 home runs and 88 RBI in 2022.
The 28-year-old went 7-for-16 with a home run and five RBI against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, and he had 11 hits in 12 games before the Padres were eliminated by the Phillies in the NLCS.
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Third Baseman: Alex Bregman, Houston Astros
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After a down season in 2020 and an injury-plagued campaign last year, Alex Bregman finally started to look like the MVP candidate of old during the second half this season, including a huge month of August where he hit .362/.452/.681 with 16 extra-base hits and 22 RBI.
No stranger to postseason success, he entered this October with a .739 OPS and 12 home runs in 73 career playoff games, and he has continued to add to his impressive resume during this year's run.
His two-run home run on Saturday was his sixth career World Series home run, and he's batting .316/.366/.632 with three doubles, three home runs and nine RBI in nine games this postseason.
Shortstop: Jeremy Peña, Houston Astros
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The bright lights of October baseball have only amplified what a bright future Jeremy Peña has with the Houston Astros.
The rookie shortstop made an immediate impact stepping into a starting job on Opening Day, and while he dealt with the usual peaks and valleys most rookies go through, he still finished with a 101 OPS+ while tallying 20 doubles, 22 home runs, 11 steals and 4.8 WAR.
He took home ALCS MVP honors by going 6-for-17 with two doubles, two home runs and four RBI in Houston's four-game sweep of the New York Yankees, and he has a .921 OPS with eight extra-base hits in nine games this postseason.
Outfielder: Harrison Bader, New York Yankees
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Center fielder Harrison Bader only played 14 games with the New York Yankees during the regular season after he was acquired while injured in a deadline deal with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Known more for his defense than anything else, he was the offensive star of the postseason for the Yankees before they bowed out in the ALCS.
In nine games, he went 10-for-30 with five home runs, and with a $5.2 million salary on the books for the 2023 season, he has a chance to be a key contributor for the Yankees next season in his final year of club control.
Outfielder: Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies
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The Phillies gave Kyle Schwarber a four-year, $79 million deal during the offseason, and he has vastly outperformed fellow newcomer Nick Castellanos who inked a five-year, $100 million deal.
The 29-year-old led the National League with 46 home runs, and his ability to work deep into counts was invaluable atop the lineup as he logged a 19.3 percent walk rate and a 130 OPS+ in 155 games.
His most memorable moment this postseason was a massive 488-foot home run that came off the bat at a staggering 120 mph.
However, it's his on-base ability that has again made the biggest impact. With 11 walks, nine hits and two hit-by-pitches, he's been on base 22 times in 13 games this postseason en route to a .386 on-base percentage out of the leadoff spot.
Outfielder: Yordan Álvarez, Houston Astros
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If not for the otherworldly seasons put together by Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani this year, Yordan Álvarez might have a legitimate case for AL MVP honors after hitting .306/.406/.613 for a 187 OPS+ with 37 home runs in a 6.8-WAR season.
The 2021 ALCS MVP is hitting just .222 this postseason, but his walk-off home run in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Seattle Mariners provided one of the most memorable moments of the playoffs and is enough to earn him a spot on this list.
Trailing 7-3 in the bottom of the seventh, Álvarez singled off flame-thrower Andrés Muñoz ahead of a two-run home run from Alex Bregman to cut into the deficit. In his next at-bat, he crushed the second pitch Robbie Ray threw out of the bullpen for the game-winning blast, just one out away from taking a series-opening loss.
Designated Hitter: Bryce Harper, Philadelphia Phillies
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Bryce Harper saw the postseason four different times as a member of the Washington Nationals, but he never advanced beyond the NLDS, so this has been the deepest postseason run of his career.
He provided one of the signature moments of his storied career when he hit a go-ahead two-run home run off Padres reliever Robert Suarez in the bottom of the eighth in Game 5 of the NLCS. That proved to be the difference in the victory that punched the Phillies' ticket to the World Series.
That blast helped him earn NLCS MVP honors, and he might also have been NLDS MVP if that award were handed out. All told, he's hitting .392/.426/.804 with six doubles, five home runs and 11 RBI in 13 games this postseason.
Starting Pitcher: Framber Valdez, Houston Astros
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A potential Game 6 start still looms large in the 2022 postseason story that Framber Valdez is writing, but for now, he's an easy choice for the top spot among starting pitchers after his gem in Game 2 on Saturday night.
Here's his postseason breakdown:
ALDS G2: ND, 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 6 K
ALCS G2: W, 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K
WS GS: W, 6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K
That is the continuation of a season that has seen him emerge as a legitimate top-of-the-rotation starter. The left-hander set a single-season record with 25 straight quality starts, and he finished 17-6 with a 2.82 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 194 strikeouts in an AL-high 201.1 innings.
Starting Pitcher: Yu Darvish, San Diego Padres
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Yu Darvish put together a quietly excellent second half, rattling off eight straight quality starts to close out the regular season and going 6-2 with a 2.32 ERA, 0.79 WHIP and 56 strikeouts in 54.1 innings during that stretch.
The 36-year-old kept things rolling in October, giving the Padres a chance to win every time he took the ball this postseason:
WCS G1: W, 7.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
NLDS G2: W, 5.0 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
NLCS G1: L, 7.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
NLCS G5: ND, 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 5 K
With one year remaining on his six-year, $126 million deal, he'll have at least one more opportunity to anchor the San Diego rotation in 2023.
Relief Pitcher: The Entire Houston Bullpen
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This might be a cop-out answer, but it's impossible to single out just one player from a bullpen that has been virtually unhittable top-to-bottom all postseason.
In 40.2 innings of work, the Astros bullpen has allowed just four earned runs, posting a 0.89 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 11.1 K/9 and a .138 opponents' batting average.
Closer Ryan Pressly has converted all four of his save chances, setup man Rafael Montero has been lights out bridging the gap to the ninth inning, and right-hander Bryan Abreu has used his electric stuff to toss eight scoreless innings while striking out 13 of the 32 batters he has faced.
Throw in splitter specialist Hector Neris, veteran Ryne Stanek, hard-throwing rookie Hunter Brown and starter-turned-reliever Luis García, and the Astros have a cornucopia of different weapons to help shorten games once the starter exits.
All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference.
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