'So pumped for him': 12-year veteran Cobb a 1st-time All-Star

SAN FRANCISCO -- Closer Camilo Doval will have company at the 2023 All-Star Game in Seattle on Tuesday.

Major League Baseball announced Saturday that right-hander Alex Cobb has been added to the National League squad as a replacement for Braves right-hander Bryce Elder, giving the Giants a second representative at the Midsummer Classic.

? MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard: Tuesday on FOX, 8 p.m. ET

It’s the first All-Star nod for the 35-year-old Cobb, who finished the first half with a 2.91 ERA across 16 starts, the fourth-best mark in the NL entering Saturday. He is the fourth-oldest first-time All-Star in Giants history, and the second-oldest in the franchise’s San Francisco era.

“I’ve always been at home during the All-Star break and watching it on TV and had a little bit of that feeling where you feel like you’re missing out,” Cobb said. “It’s really special to be able to be a part of it this year. It kind of humbles you, as well. Looking around your ballclub, you see how many guys on your team could have that ability to be representing the Giants. To be able to be picked is really special.”

Cobb’s All-Star case seemed to take a hit after he landed on the 15-day injured list with a left oblique strain last month, but he returned after missing the minimum time and delivered six scoreless innings against the Mariners in his final start before the break on Wednesday.

He began to suspect that he had snagged a late All-Star nod when he received an unexpected phone call from pitching coach Andrew Bailey on Sunday morning.

“He called me to see if I was at the field, and I told him I wasn’t yet,” Cobb said. “He kind of stumbled on his words. And then I heard [manager Gabe Kapler] in the background tell him, ‘Tell him we need to get his perspective on something.’ It felt like it was made up. Then we had a mass text to everybody saying we had a clubhouse meeting at 12:15. That’s what they did when Doval got named, so I started connecting dots."

Cobb said he had planned to spend the All-Star break working out at the Giants’ training complex in Arizona, but now he’ll shift course and head to Seattle, where he is expecting to pitch for the NL team. He plans to share the experience with his wife, Kelly, his daughters, Chloe and Everly, and his father, Rick, among others.

Known for his sinker-splitter combination, Cobb ranks third in the Majors with a 57.6 percent groundball rate, trailing only rotation mate Logan Webb (60.2 percent) and fellow All-Star Marcus Stroman (59 percent).

“This has been one of the better pitchers in baseball, period, for the last two years,” Kapler said. “Obviously, some injury stuff has come up that sort of prevented him from being a surefire no-brainer, but getting to see him pitch every fifth day and seeing the competitor that he is, his attention to detail, how much he challenges himself, how hard he works, how much effort he puts into this, it’s really rewarding for our team to see him get rewarded.”

Cobb’s path to becoming an elite starter for the Giants wasn’t easy. Once a promising young hurler for the Rays, Cobb missed the entire 2015 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery and then struggled with more injuries and ineffectiveness over his three years in Baltimore, where he recorded a 5.10 ERA over 41 starts before being traded to the Angels prior to the 2021 campaign.

The move came the same offseason Cobb began training at Driveline, the data-driven player development facility that he has credited with reinvigorating his career. Cobb worked with Bill Hezel, now an assistant pitching coach with the Angels, to clean up his delivery, which ultimately led to an uptick in velocity and helped him land a two-year, $20 million deal with the Giants in November 2021.

Now in his 12th big league season, Cobb is looking better than ever, emerging as a key workhorse in San Francisco’s rotation alongside Webb.

“He works his [butt] off,” left-hander Alex Wood said. “He’s been a great player for a long time. There’s really no greater honor on an individual level [than] to be named to an All-Star Game. I really am so freakin’ happy for him. I was jumping for joy when we found out this morning. I’m so pumped for him. It’s going to be an awesome experience.”

Webb, who has a 3.38 ERA over 18 starts this year, had also been viewed as an All-Star candidate, but he is lined up to pitch the club’s first-half finale on Sunday, which would have made him ineligible to pitch in the All-Star Game.