Seven years after gracing Warrior Field in North Turlock with his rising fastball and stellar secondary slider-splitter combination, Joe Ryan will be taking his talents to Truist Park in Atlanta, Ga. next week at the 95th Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Ryan, who pitched for Stanislaus State in 2018 and has blossomed into an ace for the Minnesota Twins in recent seasons, was named to the American League All-Star roster on Wednesday as a reserve pitcher. He replaces Hunter Brown of the Houston Astros, who will be unavailable after a scheduled start this Sunday.
The right-hander will enter the All-Star break this weekend with a standout 8-4 record, a 2.76 ERA, and 116 strikeouts over 104.1 innings pitched. He is tied for second in the AL in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) at 3.9 and ranks among the league's top ten pitchers in several key categories, including second in WHIP (0.89) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.52).
“I don’t want to jinx anything, but hopefully having a clean inning in Atlanta for once would be great,” Ryan, 29, joked on the Twins TV broadcast Wednesday, referring to his 0-2 record and 13.50 ERA on the road against the Braves. “But no, we’ll have a good time. I think it’ll be fun to just see all the other guys on both sides and watch some baseball.”
The 2025 MLB All-Star Game will take place Tuesday, July 15. The night before will be the Home Run Derby, which Ryan said he will attend to support teammate Byron Buxton.
Ryan was drafted in the seventh round of the 2018 MLB Draft out of Stan State by the Tampa Bay Rays, and was sent to Minnesota as part of the 2021 blockbuster Nelson Cruz trade. Later that year, Ryan made his MLB debut, becoming just the third Warrior to break into the big leagues, joining Rusty Kuntz and Steve Andrade. Since then, Ryan has compiled a career record of 41-30 with a 3.71 ERA and 641 strikeouts across 574.2 innings. He has started 101 of his 102 career games.
While Ryan is the first former Warrior to be named an All-Star, this isn’t the first time that the Turlock university has been represented at the midsummer classic. In 2015, Kuntz and the rest of the Kansas City Royals coaching staff manned the American League dugouts as a reward for the club winning the pennant the year prior. Kuntz was the team’s first base coach, and would go on to win a second straight league title in 2015 and celebrate a World Series win over the New York Mets.
Ryan’s selection also represents the first California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) player named an MLB All-Star since Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith. “The Wizard,” who was a four-year starter at Cal Poly from 1974-1977, played in his 15th and final All-Star Game in 1996.
The 2018 CCAA Pitcher of the Year and All-CCAA First Team selection sported an 8-1 record and a 1.65 with 127 strikeouts and just 69 hits and 13 walks surrendered in 98.1 innings over 14 appearances for Stan State under skipper Kenny Leonesio in 2018.
