MLB All-Star snubs at every position: Francisco Lindor, Luis Gil and more

Look, I understand how these people feel. Here, a handful of writers were chosen to wax poetic in regards to the superstars who made this yr's All-Star team. And the remaining of us were ignored, our rightful place on the list blatantly neglected as a consequence of a weird, overly complicated selection process.

We are those who’re being rejected. And we’re all on this together.

So here is our All-Star team, which not only consists of players of all sizes, but additionally features probably the most worthy players at each position whose names weren’t called on Sunday night and who – at the very least to this point – weren’t chosen for the Midsummer Classic.

Catcher

Patrick Bailey, San Francisco Giants

Neither league has a 3rd catcher this season (and you possibly can argue pretty easily that every league picked the correct two players behind the plate), but Bailey would have been a worthy addition (the league as an alternative selected outfielder Heliot Ramos and ace Logan Webb to represent the Giants). Throwing and framing metrics show Bailey as among the finest defensive catchers in baseball, and wRC+ mainly puts him on par with Salvador Perez on offense. Bailey only debuted last yr. He'll make an All-Star team sooner or later.

First Base

Christian Walker, Arizona Diamondbacks

A word of recommendation for anyone seeking to make an All-Star team: Try to not play in the identical league and at the identical position as Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman. Those two were voted to an All-Star team for the eighth time this season. Walker has yet to make one. He has the third-most home runs within the NL (behind All-Star DHs Shohei Ohtani and Marcell Ozuna) and ranks Tenth within the NL in wRC+ (but still behind Harper and Freeman). Walker could still make the team if Harper's hamstring strain keeps him out of the All-Star game, however the Phillies appear to expect Harper to return this week.

Second Base

Brice Turang, Milwaukee Brewers

WAR isn't an ideal measure, but it surely's a useful shorthand for a player's overall impact. According to Baseball Reference's version of WAR, Turang is the fourth-best player in your complete National League. The FanGraphs version isn't quite as optimistic, but it surely still has him ranked twentieth within the NL, which is 30 spots higher — and greater than 1.5 WAR higher — than the NL's backup second baseman, Luis Arraez. While Turang doesn't have Arraez's batting average, he has more power, more stolen bases, and much better defensive stats. However, players have chosen Arraez.

Shortstop

Francisco Lindor, New York Mets

Had Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (who was out for an prolonged period as a consequence of injury) not been voted the NL starter, there may need been room for Lindor, who ranks seventh within the league in fWAR. But Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds (replacing the injured Mookie Betts) was voted by the players and the league selected CJ Abrams because the Washington Nationals' lone representative, leaving no room for Lindor or Willy Adames of the Milwaukee Brewers. A complete of 40 players have at the very least 2.5 fWAR to this point this season, and nine of them are shortstops (11 if you happen to count the versatile Willi Castro of the Minnesota Twins and Josh Smith of the Texas Rangers). Shortstop withdrawals were inevitable, even with seven chosen from the 2 rosters.

Third Base

Jordan Westburg, Baltimore Orioles

Five third basemen are in the highest 18 in American League fWAR, and there just wasn't enough room on the roster for all of them. The fans voted for José Ramírez, the players voted for Rafael Devers, and the league selected Isaac Paredes to represent the Tampa Bay Rays. Westburg was the underdog. He may need made it if he had been listed as a second baseman – he played a few third of his games at second base – but Westburg, Paredes, and Smith have pretty similar numbers, and there just wasn't enough room for all of them.

Outfield

Willy Castro, Minnesota Twins
Colton Cowser, Baltimore Orioles
Brandon Nimmo, New York Mets

Castro doesn't exactly fit an All-Star ballot. He's played at the very least 20 games at five different positions — second base, third base, shortstop, center field, left field — and sometimes played multiple positions in a single game. Despite all that movement, he posted a wRC+ of 130 and the sixth-highest fWAR of any qualified outfielder in either league. Still, he didn't make the AL team. Neither did Orioles rookie Cowser (or teammate Anthony Santander) or quite a lot of other outstanding defensive players (most notably Daulton Varsho of the Toronto Blue Jays). The NL outfield was a bit more open, but Nimmo had at the very least pretty much as good a likelihood as any outfielder on the NL bench.

Designated hitter

Brent Rooker, Oakland A's

David Fry is considered one of the primary half's most surprising stars. He's made double-digit starts at catcher, left field and designated hitter — with a handful of innings at first base, third base and right field — and he's helped the Guardians stay in first place with the Tenth-best wRC+ amongst players with at the very least 200 plate appearances. Rooker, nevertheless, has similar offensive stats (155 OPS+ to Fry's 161) while having nearly 100 more plate appearances and hitting greater than twice as many home runs (18 vs. 8).

Launcher

Ronel Blanco, Houston Astros
Jack Flaherty, Detroit Tigers
Luis Gil, New York Yankees
George Kirby, Seattle Mariners
Christopher Sanchez, Philadelphia Phillies

If you last checked three weeks ago, you may have thought Gil was a sure-fire candidate for the AL team. In mid-June, he had a 2.03 ERA after 14 starts and appeared like a worthy substitute for the injured Gerrit Cole at the highest of the Yankees' rotation. But Gil's final three starts — before a Sunday night game against the Red Sox — ended with three straight losses and a 14.90 ERA, pushing his season ERA right down to 3.41, Fifteenth-best within the AL. Four starters with an ERA under 3.00 didn't make either team (Blanco, Sánchez, Brady Singer of the Kansas City Royals and Jake Irvin of the Nationals). The same goes for the key league leader in strikeout-to-walk ratio (Kirby) and the leader in xFIP (Flaherty), who also has the third-best strikeout rate and fourth-best expected ERA. However, it's inevitable that some select starters will opt out, which suggests a number of the initial losers will find yourself making it, too.

Relief launcher

Trevor Megill, Milwaukee Brewers

The first-place Brewers added two players to the NL starting lineup, but none to the bench (three of their infielders would have merited consideration) and none within the bullpen (they’ve the fourth-best bullpen ERA in the key leagues). Closer Megill and setup man Bryan Hudson rank fifth and sixth in Win Probability Added, and either of them would have been a legitimate addition, however the NL Players' Ballot chosen two non-closers (Matt Strahm and the Philadelphia Phillies' Jeff Hoffman), forcing the league to make use of five of its six at-large spots to search out individual representatives from the Mets (Pete Alonso), Nationals (Abrams), St. Louis Cardinals (Ryan Helsley), Chicago Cubs (Shota Imanaga) and Miami Marlins (Tanner Scott). The only real at-large selection within the NL went to Webb.