The refrain of general managers and team managers this year is that the National League is stacked and the American League is largely devoid of great teams. But the AL does seem to have one significant advantage over the NL — the volume of dominant high-end starting pitchers.

No pitcher has been better over the past two seasons than Detroit’s Tarik Skubal. No free agent signing has had a greater impact than Yankees left-hander Max Fried. The Rangers’ Jacob deGrom is back in the conversation for best pitcher on the planet. Boston’s Garrett Crochet overwhelms hitters with his power stuff. You could even make a case for Kansas City Royals lefty Kris Bubic, although it seems very unlikely he will get the nod. (And you could have also made the case for Houston’s Hunter Brown before the Astros announced he will not pitch in the game.)

These are the elite aces worthy of selection to take the mound to start the All-Star Game at Truist Park in Atlanta on Tuesday. Yankees manager Aaron Boone will be the one to make that decision as the skipper for the AL’s team and will formally announce his choice on Monday morning.

Boone’s options are incredible, his choice impossible. Here are the cases that can be made for the four players most likely to get the starting nod.

Max Fried, New York Yankees

For decades, the All-Star Game managers possessed a lot of power when it came to building the pitching staffs and rosters, and it was understood that to the victors went the spoils. Managers coming off World Series appearances, as Boone is now, would often favor their own players in their choices, and if this was still the culture around the All-Star Game, Fried might be a shoo-in.

He has a 2.27 ERA in 19 starts, and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says that Fried has been exactly what he sold himself to be when the left-hander and the Yankees were courting each other during free agency last winter. Fried would be more than a worthy choice, if that’s the name that Boone announces Monday, and because he is scheduled to pitch Saturday, he would be rested and able to take the ball Tuesday. There could be additional incentive to choose Fried, who would presumably be greeted warmly by the crowd in Atlanta, where he pitched for years as a member of the Atlanta Braves’ rotation.

But the process of All-Star selections is much more collaborative than it used to be, with the commissioner’s office weighing in in a way that might’ve been dismissed by the likes of managers Earl Weaver and Billy Martin, who might’ve refused to take the call of Bowie Kuhn.

Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers

Skubal is slated to start later today against the Seattle Mariners, meaning he will be perfectly positioned to take the ball Tuesday. And look, if you gave truth serum to evaluators around the sport, Skubal would probably win the vote as the majors’ best pitcher right now. He does lead all pitchers in fWAR this season, by far:

Skubal 4.7
Paul Skenes 3.9
Zack Wheeler, 3.8
Garrett Crochet, 3.8

He won the Cy Young Award in 2024, and since losing his first two decisions of this season, he has seemingly only gotten better — he’s undefeated in his last 16 starts, with a 1.62 ERA and just 10 walks and 138 strikeouts in 105⅓ innings. Nobody pounds the strike zone more aggressively than Skubal, but he’s also adapted, finding different ways to succeed outside of what’s previously worked for him. In his start against the Minnesota Twins on June 29, he and catcher Dillon Dingler undermined past scouting reports of Skubal’s by pitching backwards. Because hitters had tried — with some success — to ambush first-pitch fastballs from the left-hander, Dingler called for offspeed early in the count, leaving Twins hitters flailing. Skubal allowed one hit and struck out 13 of the 23 batters he faced.

Skubal has also demonstrated that he’s got some box-office appeal, as well, despite playing for a small-market team. The “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcast of that game drew a surprising 2 million viewers, many of whom tuned in to watch what might be the preeminent left-hander of a generation.

Jacob deGrom, Texas Rangers

The 37-year-old deGrom is scheduled to start Saturday, and given that he is on track for his most significant workload in six years, he always has the option of bypassing an All-Star appearance. Boone is likely to connect with Rangers manager Bruce Bochy sometime over the weekend to get some feel for how deGrom wants to be used, if at all.

But if deGrom does want to take a victory lap in the All-Star Game, well, it would be well-earned. His numbers are almost identical to those of Fried: He has a 2.29 ERA and 0.912 WHIP to go with a 9-2 record and just 74 hits allowed in 106⅔ innings.

Garrett Crochet, Boston Red Sox

Crochet will conclude his dominant first half with a start Saturday against the Rays. The Red Sox have had a really unconventional season, with the Rafael Devers saga leading to a blockbuster trade that dropped right in the middle of a winning streak. But Crochet has been the team’s one constant, and he leads the majors in both innings (120⅓ ) and strikeouts (151), while posting a 2.39 ERA.