WASHINGTON _ J.T. Realmuto had an anxious moment Sunday morning in the Marlins' clubhouse.
With his wife, Alexis, is expected to give birth to their first child within the next day or so, team travel director Manny Colon relayed an urgent message to Realmuto that manager Don Mattingly needed to see him in his office.
The baby hadn't arrived yet.
Mattingly instead gave Realmuto the other piece of good news he was waiting for.
"He just said Lexi called and Donnie needs to see you in his office," Realmuto said. "Donnie sat there with a straight for a minute, but then he told me 'You're an All-Star.' It was a sigh of relief because I thought I was gonna have to rush to get a flight to get home."
Realmuto was the only Marlins' player chosen for the upcoming All-Star Game, which will take place July 17 at Nationals Park.
Realmuto, who was selected as one of the National League's reserves, became the third catcher in Marlins' history to earn an All-Star selection joining Charles Johnson (1997, 2001) and Paul Lo Duca (2005).
"It feels nice to finally break that barrier," Realmuto said. "Honestly, it's been a dream of mine my whole life to play in that game and it's something I'm definitely going to cherish."
And yet despite leading all NL catchers in most offensive and defensive categories, Realmuto was still not voted in by his peers on the coaches/players' ballots.
Realmuto leads all major league catchers in batting average (.317), slugging (.551) and OPS (.919) and ranks third in on-base percentage (.368).
Realmuto was tied with Yasmani Grandal in home runs (12) and RBIs (44) for the most among all NL catchers as of Sunday afternoon's games.
Realmuto has 35 or more extra-base hits in each of his first four full seasons in the majors _ a feat achieved by only two other catchers, Johnny Bench and Mike Piazza.
Realmuto leads all NL catchers in offensive wins above replacement (3.2 wins), a metric used to measure a player's value to a team. He is also tied for third among players regardless of position with the Cubs' Javy Baez, trailing only Reds' Eugenio Suarez (3.4) and the Rockies' Nolan Arenado (3.3).
"You could have said JT was All-Star worthy with what he did at the beginning of last season, and for him to earn it this year is a great accomplishment for him," Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. "You have heard me say that he has been one of the best catchers in the game for a while now, and for him to finally be recognized is a testament to the job he has done not just this year, but over his career.
"He continues to better his game in every area, offensively, defensively and with his game calling, and we are excited to see what else he will be able to do going forward. The sky is the limit with him."
Realmuto, who was drafted in the third round of the 2010 draft by the Marlins out of Carl Albert High School in Oklahoma, made a case for making the team a year ago.
Realmuto only last week cracked the top five in fan voting among catchers.
Yet Realmuto still has shined in his young career as one of the most complete players at the position in recent memory.
Realmuto has thrown out 43 percent of runners (13 of 30) trying to steal bases, which ranks the best among catchers with more than 20 attempts at throwing out runners.
"I think the cool thing about J.T. as a catcher is a lot of times you see guys that are in the big leagues for a decent amount of time and they're known as defensive catchers or offensive catchers, but he's that rare one that's a lot of both," Dan Straily said. "He can throw to second harder than some pitchers can throw to the plate. It's really a complete athlete and they stuck him behind the plate when they drafted him and we here have benefitted the most."
Realmuto is second among NL catchers in defensive WAR (5.1) behind only the Cubs' Willson Contreras (5.7), who was selected as the NL's starter behind the plate.
Realmuto ranks the highest or close to the highest among catcher's pop time, which measures the time from the moment the pitch hits the catcher's mitt to the point it reaches the fielder's receiving point.
According to Statcast, Realmuto is tied with the Braves' Chris Stewart for the best pop time to second base among all NL catchers (1.88 seconds). His pop time to third base is a major league-best 1.46 seconds.
The strength of Realmuto's throws this season overall is 87.6 mph, which ranks second in the NL to the Phillies' Jorge Alfaro (90.9 mph).
"A lot of times the biggest weapon for me holding runners isn't anything I do, but it's the fact he's catching," Straily said. "Stolen base success rate has gone done for me personally because of him catching. He controls the running game by just being back there and being the athlete he is."
A few hours after he had five of the 22 hits Miami totaled in Sunday's win over the Nationals, Realmuto headed back to Miami to be with his wife and await the new addition to their family. In one week's time, he'll be back in Washington as one of baseball's best.
"It's crazy, even getting five hits today and getting told I was making the All-Star team, none of that compares to the fact I'm going to have a child in the next day or two so definitely, an exciting week to say the least," Realmuto said.
