CHICAGO -- When Jorge Polanco had been named the American League's starting shortstop in the 2019 All-Star Game on June 27, he had expressed excitement at the possibility of being joined by several of his teammates from the Twins, who entered Sunday with the second-best record in the AL.

As it turned out, he will be joined in Cleveland by two other Twins players. Right-handed pitcher Jake Odorizzi was also officially named to his first career All-Star team on Sunday afternoon on ESPN's All-Star Selection Show. Right-hander Jose Berrios was added as an injury replacement for Odorizzi when the latter landed on the injured list with a blister issue on Wednesday.

? 2019 All-Star Game, presented by Mastercard July 9 at 6:30 p.m. CT on FOX

"When it's the first half of the season and things have gone really well, it's the nature of thoughts to picture being a part of that game in the middle of July," Odorizzi said. "It wasn't a driving factor for me. I just wanted to keep doing the best I could for everybody in there. I think that's the mindset everybody on our team has, is playing for each other, as opposed to playing for yourself."

The 29-year-old Odorizzi entered Sunday with a 2.73 ERA and 94 strikeouts in 85 2/3 innings and has only allowed eight homers -- tied for fourth-fewest among qualified AL starters -- despite being a fly-ball pitcher. The Twins won 11 consecutive games started by Odorizzi from mid-April to early June, and his 2.5 WAR, per FanGraphs, ranked him 10th in that group entering Sunday.

"I don't think it's really set in too much yet," Odorizzi said. "It was a goal of mine to start the year, and I'm honored to be able to be named. ... It takes eight other guys and a whole locker room of support to get me to this point, to be pretty candid. Relievers come in to do their job after me. Defense, offense, training staff. From my standpoint, the assistance and help and teammates and everybody in that room had a hand in me being selected."

Odorizzi's teammates certainly played a significant role in getting him to this point -- he averages 5.85 runs of support per start -- but his personal development over the offseason played a role also, as he spent much of the winter working at the Florida Baseball Ranch to clean up his mechanics after posting a career-worst 4.49 ERA last season.

Entering Thursday, Berr¨ªos is 8-4 with a 2.89 ERA (sixth-best in the AL) in 17 outings this year, with 102 strikeouts and 20 walks in 112 innings (fourth-most in the AL). He has completed at least six innings 15 times, in part by slashing his walk rate to 4.4%, the third-lowest mark among AL qualifiers.

But even as the Twins celebrated the well-deserved selection of their two first-time All-Stars -- Berr¨ªos is a two-time selection -- Polanco and Odorizzi both openly expressed surprise that there was only one position-player selection from their first-place club, which entered Sunday leading the Major Leagues with 156 homers, a .498 team slugging percentage and has eight players with at least 10 homers, an MLB high.

"It¡¯s been pretty well publicized this year how well our offense has done, and to only have one guy out of that record-breaking offense make it..." said Odorizzi, trailing off. "Not to single somebody out and take away from anybody else, the fact that [Max] Kepler isn¡¯t an All-Star, with his top three or four in the league in just about every category besides average, and what he¡¯s meant to this team, that¡¯s the one that¡¯s a real head-scratcher to me."

"I'm a little surprised," Polanco said. "This team has been playing really well, and I think we have a lot of good teammates that deserve to be in the All-Star Game, too."

Though several other Twins had arguments for being named to the team, including Taylor Rogers, Nelson Cruz, C.J. Cron, Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Mitch Garver and others, Kepler appears to be the most glaring omission from a reserve crop of outfielders that ultimately included Austin Meadows of the Rays, Joey Gallo of the Rangers and Mookie Betts of the Red Sox.

Entering Sunday, Kepler was second among AL outfielders to only Mike Trout in WAR, per FanGraphs, with 2.7 WAR over 75 games thanks to a .269/.344/.548 slash line and strong defense in right field. He is also second in that group in homers, with 21, while his .548 slugging percentage ranks third.

"Hopefully, between now and then, there are always people who get added, however it may be," Odorizzi said. "But he¡¯s one of the most deserving people that I can really say that about right now."

"[Odorizzi and Polanco] are clearly All-Stars in my eyes and everybody's eyes here," manager Rocco Baldelli said. "It was a challenging day also for some other guys, because I don't think -- I truly, deep down, know we have more than two guys that deserve to be All-Stars. We have more than two guys that had All-Star-caliber years.

Following the announcement of his selection during a team meeting behind closed doors, Odorizzi was given the opportunity to address his teammates, and he made sure to highlight the fact that All-Star selections -- or lack thereof -- will ultimately not have any bearing on their more significant goal of winning the World Series.

"I wanted to express to all the other guys in the room that were well-deserving to go that I think they are all All-Stars," Odorizzi said. "We have bigger plans than the All-Star Game and I wanted to express that to the team in a way that, if you thought you were going to be it, I'm sure there's guys in there that really expected to be in it. It can be a dejecting thing.

"It's special to be selected to be anything by your peers or fans, whatever it may be, but I think it's even more special to earn a title, and if we want to be where we are at the end of the year, we would have earned what we're trying to shoot for. That's the message I wanted to send to everybody."

"It was well-appreciated by other guys in the clubhouse," Baldelli said. "There are guys out there who know how well they played for the first half of the season. In a moment when you're the one that is going and being honored and getting this award essentially, to take a second about all the other guys in the room was a very classy thing for him to do. I think it was very well-appreciated."

The 2019 All-Star Game presented by Mastercard will be played on Tuesday, July 9, at Progressive Field in Cleveland. It will be televised nationally by FOX Sports; in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and RDS; and worldwide by partners in more than 180 countries. FOX Deportes will provide Spanish-language coverage in the United States, while ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio Deportes will provide exclusive national radio coverage. MLB Network, MLB.com and SiriusXM also will provide comprehensive All-Star Week coverage.