Los Angeles Dodgers: Potential first-time all-stars for 2019

3. Hyun-Jin Ryu

Hyun-Jin Ryu has secretly become one of the best pitchers in baseball that nobody ever talks about how talented they are. Anyone in LA will tell you how good Ryu is when he is at his best but those outside of LA probably don’t realize how good the Korean southpaw really is.

I mean heck, Ryu finished fourth in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2013 and has a career ERA of 3.20 and a 1.216 WHIP. The reason why Ryu is so overlooked is because of his health problems and him being off the field more than he has been on it.

Ryu only threw 82.1 innings last season and has only thrown 213.2 since 2015. We have not seen a full, completely healthy season out of Ryu since his rookie year and he spun a 3.00 ERA in that rookie year.

Although he was hurt for most of last season, he was elite when we was pitching and it became a game of “when is this going to end” when it never did end. If Ryu can just get one healthy year in a contract year he is going to show how great he is and is going to get paid a lot of money by another team.

You could make the same case for Rich Hill, however, with Hill’s age and his inconsistencies (sometimes he is elte sometimes he looks bad) it is hard to see him beating out Ryu’s numbers in the first half.

You can even make the case for Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez being on this list as well. However, as utility guys, it is hard to see either guy doing enough to warrant the all-star team. I would not put it past the fans to get the fan-favorite Hernandez in there, though.

Like Ross Stripling in 2018, Hyun-Jin Ryu has a great chance of being that Dodger that shocks everyone when he is announced as an all-star in 2019.