BOSTON --

Who got picked: Guys like Brock Holt don't make All-Star teams. Coming into spring training a year ago, he wasn't even assured a place on the roster of the Red Sox, who traded for Jonathan Herrera because they didn't think Holt could back up at short.

Even when they succeed, like Holt did, starting games at seven different positions, like he did last season and did again in 2015, they're usually praised for their versatility and their importance to a winning team, but that's usually as far as it goes. Modest money, few real accolades.

But Monday night, that all changed for 27-year-old Brock Holt. The former ninth-round draft choice and throw-in from the Pirates in the 2012 deal that brought closer Joel Hanrahan to Boston for a short-lived stay became perhaps the most improbable selection to the American League All-Star team. Holt is Boston's only All-Star representative, selected ahead of such players as shortstop Xander Bogaerts, second baseman Dustin Pedroia and pitcher Clay Buchholz.

Holt has become much more than just a fill-in for the Red Sox. He has started 28 of the team's past 29 games, including the past 10 at second base, where he has played since Pedroia went on the disabled list with a strained right hamstring. Drafted as a shortstop, Holt was a second baseman when he came to the Sox, but has shown an amazing affinity to play wherever John Farrell has placed him on the diamond. He has yet to make an error in the 73 games he has appeared in the outfield for the Red Sox, even though he never played the position before last season.

While big-name acquisitions Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval have combined for a minus-0.2 WAR, Holt's 3.1 WAR is second on the team only to Mookie Betts (4.0).

Who deserved to be picked: Red Sox right-hander Clay Buchholz should have been named an American League All-Star for the third time Monday night, a recognition of the dramatic turnaround he has made in his performance since mid-May. Xander Bogaerts, as a selectee in the "Final Vote," still has a chance at 22 to become the youngest Red Sox All-Star since Tony Conigliaro, also 22, was named an All-Star in 1967. He made a strong case to be selected without the extra drama.

After throwing a shutout on Opening Day in Philadelphia, Buchholz went 1-4 with a 7.04 ERA in his next six starts, reinforcing the widely held notion that the Red Sox had entered the season with a vacuum at the top of its rotation after Jon Lester signed with the Cubs.

But, while Lester has had an uneven transition to the National League, Buchholz has pitched some of the best baseball of his career over his past 10 starts, going 5-2 with a 1.99 ERA, the fourth lowest in the American League since May 11. Buchholz has struck out 61 while walking just 10 in that span, while holding opponents to a .227 batting average. If it walks like an ace, looks like an ace and pitches like an ace, is it an ace? Buchholz is doing his best to quash that ongoing “no ace” conversation in Boston, but didn't crack the All-Star roster.

Bogaerts set the bar impossibly high for himself when he burst onto the scene in the 2013 postseason, days after turning 21. Already regarded as the team's No. 1 prospect, Bogaerts became the team's everyday shortstop the following spring and was assumed to be destined for instant stardom.

Instead, he struggled for the first time since he left Aruba to become a professional baseball player, enduring a nearly-three-month-long slump while being shuffled between two positions, short and third. His confidence was shaken, but he finished last season on a high note and in his second full season has shown the skill set predicted of him.

Bogaerts ranks third in batting average among major league shortstops, trailing only Jose Iglesias and Troy Tulowitzki. He's second in hits, third in doubles, fifth in OPS and since June 1 has posted a .336/.360/.458 slash line, which has earned him a promotion to the No. 3 spot in the Red Sox order, which looks like it might become a permanent position. His defense also has made tremendous strides, his confidence and comfort level growing daily.