Here are the September All-Stars

The Major League Baseball regular season is six months long, which allows us to break it into six convenient chunks. Each of these chunks is equal to one another, even if it doesn’t seem that way at the time; it always feels, in the moment, that the first and last months count more.

But throughout the season, we put together an All-Star Team for each month of the season. As we wrap up this thrilling season of baseball, here’s an All-Star pick from each league, at each position, for September. This has been a fun feature. See you in April.

Catcher:
NL: Elias Díaz, Rockies (.900 OPS)
AL: Yasmani Grandal, White Sox (1.043 OPS, .470 OBP)

Grandal has been getting on base all year, but now he’s finally hitting the ball with authority, at the exact right time. It was slim pickings for NL catchers, but Díaz had a .303/.370/.530 line for the month.

First base:
NL: Paul Goldschmidt, Cardinals (1.141 OPS, nine homers, .440 OBP)
AL: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Blue Jays (.954 OPS)

It will not be a surprise to you to see a bunch of Cardinals on this list: When you win 17 in a row, you generally have a lot of guys producing; Goldschmidt was the best of them all, though, slugging .701 and playing some typically sterling defense at first base. There are many Blue Jays on this list as well. Their September charge, whether it comes up short or not, has been generated by their offense … and as always by Vlad Jr., who slumped the last couple of weeks. But he was so good the first couple of weeks that his numbers were still better than every other AL first baseman’s.

Second base:
NL: Javier Báez, Mets (.361 BA, 1.019 OPS)
AL: Marcus Semien, Blue Jays (12 homers)

Who can remember the whole business with Báez’s thumbs anymore? Ever since that happened, he has been knocking baseballs all around Citi Field, though it won't extend to the playoffs. Semien is a fellow pending free agent -- one who also would like to maybe be known as a shortstop by the market -- who is having a terrific finishing kick.

Shortstop:
NL: Corey Seager, Dodgers (.366 BA, 1.153 OPS)
AL: Bo Bichette, Blue Jays (.955 OPS, seven homers)

The battle between Seager and Brandon Crawford for the best NL shortstop of September was a tight one in a similar fashion to the Giants-Dodgers back-and-forth all month. Seager gets the slight edge because he hit for a little more power, but there is no wrong answer here, either for player or for team.

And seriously, the Blue Jays really hit the ball hard in September, jeez.

Third base:
NL: Eugenio Suárez, Reds (.446 OBP, 1.236 OPS)
AL: José Ramírez, Indians (.907 OPS)

The Reds waited all season for Suárez to start hitting, and he finally did in September, slugging .790 for the month, which is honestly almost three times what he slugged in March and April. It wasn’t enough to salvage his numbers for the year, but it’s worth keeping an eye on for 2022: Suárez looked like himself again in September.

Outfield:
NL: Juan Soto, Nationals (.565 OBP, .404 BA, seven homers)
Bryce Harper, Phillies (1.115 OPS, eight homers)
Tyler O'Neill, Cardinals (11 homers, 27 RBIs, 1.013 OPS)

AL: Luis Robert, White Sox (1.031 OPS)
Kyle Tucker, Astros (.431 OBP, 1.087 OPS)
Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Blue Jays (1.084 OPS)

It’s tough to have a better month than Soto just had. He had a .565 OBP and hit .404 with seven homers. Remember how he said the Home Run Derby might get him going? He wasn’t wrong. Harper and O’Neill did everything possible to will their teams into the playoffs, but it turned out that O’Neill had a lot more help than Harper did.

Most baseball fans haven’t noticed because he was hurt half the year and the White Sox have had their division wrapped up for weeks, but Robert has been an absolute monster down the stretch. It will be fun for us all to be reintroduced to him in the coming weeks.

Designated hitter:
AL: Giancarlo Stanton, Yankees (10 homers, 25 RBIs)

He wasn’t the Yankees’ DH every game in September, but he was there more than he was in the outfield, so we’re counting him. He did what Stanton always does when he’s healthy: He launched homers. (Ten for the month.)

Starting pitchers:
NL: Max Fried, Braves (3-0, 1.54 ERA)
AL: Frankie Montas, A’s (3-0, 2.19 ERA)

Fried locked this up by shutting down the Phillies on Wednesday to put Atlanta on the verge of a clinch, which they secured the following night. The A’s have gone in the opposite direction than the Braves, but that is not the fault of Montas.

Relief pitchers:
NL: Josh Hader, Brewers (10 scoreless innings, 18 K's)
AL: Liam Hendriks, White Sox (11 2/3 scoreless innings, 16 K's)

Neither of these relievers gave up a single run in September. Perhaps not coincidentally, they are arguably the two best relievers in the game.