López credits wife Jhilaris for his All-Star-worthy first-half performance

ARLINGTON -- Did Reynaldo López ever envision he would earn an All-Star selection as a starting pitcher?

“That was never in my mind,” López said with a smile. “I just focused on, ‘OK, if I do good as a reliever, I know I can get there.’”

But even before Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos called this past winter to offer the opportunity to make the transition from the bullpen to the rotation, López’s wife, Jhilaris Bautista, was pushing him to reintroduce himself to the starting role.

“She was like, ‘Just think about it,’” López said. “‘If you keep doing what you’ve been doing as a reliever, then you can be a great starter.'”

She was right.

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Consequently, López will be joining Chris Sale, Marcell Ozuna and Max Fried as the Braves’ representatives for this year’s All-Star Game, which will be played at Globe Life Field on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. Sale gained his eighth selection and first since 2018. Ozuna’s third selection is his first since 2017. This is Fried’s second All-Star selection and first since 2022.

López is incredibly thankful that his first career selection is a product of the faith his wife had in his ability to perform like a frontline starter.

“It’s great when you have people who have confidence in you,” López said. “Even me, I didn’t have faith in me being a starter again. My wife was the only one who was telling me I could be a good starter again. She said, ‘You have a good slider. You have a good fastball. And you’re working on the curve and your changeup. If you have four pitches as a reliever, you’d just be wasting pitches.'”

López posted a 4.64 ERA over the 65 starts he made for the White Sox from 2018-19. He started to transition to a relief role during the 2021 season, one in which he spent significant time at the Triple-A level. His most successful career stretch came when he produced a 3.02 ERA over 129 combined appearances with the White Sox, Angels and Guardians from 2022-23.

When López began talking about free agency last year, he and his agent believed it would be best to stick with a relief role. Fortunately for Jhilaris, she wasn’t the only one thinking her husband might be successful if asked to pitch more than one inning a few times a week.

Anthopoulos proposed the starting role without any prompting from López or his representatives, thinking it was worth giving López a chance to at least begin the season as the team’s fifth starter. So, he provided a three-year, $30 million deal.

López didn’t throw more than 66 innings either of the past two seasons and he hadn’t spent a full season as a big league starter since 2019. But he was excited about the opportunity.

“We went into Spring Training open and ready to make any determination that we saw fit,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Even leaving Spring Training, we didn’t know if it was going to work. We didn’t really know how it was going to transpire until we actually did it.”

There’s certainly no reason to question this decision now that López has produced a 1.88 ERA through his first 17 starts. He has owned MLB’s best ERA, when he has thrown enough innings to qualify (one inning per games played by team).

Reynaldo and Jhilaris shared an emotional, celebratory moment on July 7, when the Braves pitcher learned he had gained his first career All-Star selection. The veteran hurler was informed after he threw six scoreless innings to secure a three-game series win over the Phillies at Truist Park.

“When I got the [All-Star invitation] envelope, I took it to the family room to talk to my wife and kids,” López said. “I said they didn’t invite me to the All-Star Game. My wife was like, ‘No.’ I was like, ‘Nah, I’m just kidding.’ She gave me a big hug. She was so happy, more than you can imagine. She told me she’s always been praying for me to be in an All-Star Game.”

Some might say, nobody could have expected to see López gain an All-Star selection this year. But there is a proud wife who would beg to differ.