Rookie sensations: Are All-Star selections prelude to successful MLB careers?

Skenes (5-0, 2.12 ERA) headlines the 2024 group, earning the All-Star nod just one year after being drafted first overall. Per Elias, he's the first player to be named an All-Star the year after being drafted in the previous year's amateur draft.

The Pirates' star and Imanaga (7-2, 3.16 ERA) are the seventh and eighth rookie starting pitchers since 2014 to be invited to the Midsummer Classic. 

Miami right-hander Sandy Alcantara is the most decorated of the six other rookies, earning a Cy Young Award in 2022. That season, he was also named to his only other All-Star Game. Masahiro Tanaka of the New York Yankees finished seventh in the Cy Young Award voting in his third season and earned his only All-Star invite in his sixth season.

Meanwhile, Chicago White Sox's right-hander Michael Soroka, who started his career with Atlanta, and Baltimore Orioles left-hander John Means have battled injuries. In contrast, Miami left-hander Trevor Rogers has struggled to replicate his All-Star form of 2021. 

Kodai Senga of the New York Mets is the most recent of the six, making his first trip to the All-Star Game last season, but he hasn't pitched yet in 2024 because of injuries.

It's a small sample size, but it's difficult for a starting pitcher to stay on top after an All-Star Game selection.

Expanding our view to 1936, when New York Yankees star Joe DiMaggio became the first rookie to be named to the All-Star Game, the cream of the pitching crop is Tom Seaver, who's the only Hall of Fame starting pitcher to be named an All-Star in his rookie season. Others on the list with noteworthy careers are Don Newcombe, Dwight Gooden and Yu Darvish.

Miller (2.39 ERA), a relief pitcher for Oakland, is in rarefied air. He is one of only three relief pitchers in the past 10 seasons to be named an All-Star in his rookie season. Yennier Cano earned the honor in 2023 with the Orioles, and Dellin Betances did so in 2014 with the Yankees.

Cano isn't as good as last season, but he's had a solid first half. Meanwhile, Betances has strung together four straight All-Star seasons to start his career.

It is much more common for a hitter to be named to the All-Star Game as a rookie. Merrill (12 HR, .288 BA) is the 15th player to do so in the past 10 seasons. Four players who made the All-Star Game as rookies — Jose Abreu, Kris Bryant, Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger — went on to win MVP awards after their rookie seasons.

In total, 12 Hall of Famers dot the list of rookies named to the All-Star Game, with Ichiro Suzuki and Albert Pujols certainly joining that list soon. That's 7.5% percent over 88 years.

So, early success doesn't guarantee an accolade-filled career. For every Seaver or DiMaggio, we have multiple players like Aledmys Diaz, Gino Cimoli or Dean Stone, who never made another All-Star Game after their rookie seasons.

Time will tell whether this year's crop of young All-Stars has continued success, but for Skenes and company, their Midsummer Classic selections are a great way to start a career.