2026 MLB All-Star Game rosters were announced Saturday night, and there was a chance this year’s teams were going to look a little strange due to all the big-name stars either dealing with injuries or having bad seasons. Consider:
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Aaron Judge, voted in as a starter, will miss the game due to a rib injury.
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Mike Trout, also voted in as a starter, is on the injured list (hamstring), although he’s hoping to play in his first All-Star Game since 2019.
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All-Star mainstay Jose Ramirez is having his worst season and is also on the IL (hand).
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Francisco Lindor has played just 31 games because of a left calf injury.
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Mookie Betts has been hot of late but missed time with an oblique injury and got off to a slow start.
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Cal Raleigh, last year’s American League MVP runner-up, is still struggling with a batting average well under .200.
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Future Hall of Famer Manny Machado is likewise scuffling with a sub-.200 average.
Other stars playing well below their usual level include Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Trea Turner, Julio Rodriguez, Fernando Tatis Jr., Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette, Alex Bregman, Gunnar Henderson and Jose Altuve, among others. Guerrero was voted in as a starter but none of the others made it.
We won’t get into the pitcher injuries (including Tarik Skubal, Max Fried, Hunter Brown), although at least we’ve been blessed with a group of National League starters having monster first halves, including Jacob Misiorowski, Cristopher Sanchez, Shohei Ohtani, Chase Burns and Chris Sale.
Those five guys all made the NL roster, with Ohtani winning the fan vote as the starting DH. Let’s get into the snubs and other thoughts.
National League
Biggest snub: Brice Turang, 2B, Milwaukee Brewers
Turang is the obvious choice. He’s seventh in bWAR among NL position players and eighth in fWAR, making him the top snub in WAR on both sites. Why didn’t he make it? The first mistake was the fans voting in Ozzie Albies as the starter at second base. Albies isn’t having a bad season, but Turang was better in 2024, he was better in 2025, and he has been better in 2026. In combo WAR (averaging Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs together), Turang comes in at 3.2 and Albies at 2.0. It’s not really close. Turang has the higher OPS and is a better defensive player.
The second mistake was the players voting in San Francisco’s Luis Arraez as the backup, although this one is much closer thanks to Arraez’s combo WAR at 3.1. Arraez is hitting .326, but Turang has 61 runs and 51 RBIs versus 44 and 32, respectively, for Arraez. Singles are nice, but Turang has done a little more damage. I would have gone with Turang as the starter and Arraez as the backup. And, no, Arraez didn’t end up as the only rep for the Giants, as Logan Webb was also selected.
Second-biggest snub: Justin Wrobleski, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers
If the emphasis is on “first-half” production, then Wrobleski is the biggest pitching snub. He is 10-2 with a 2.80 ERA, tied for second among NL pitchers in wins (behind only Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby, who is 12-1) and eighth in ERA. The players voted for Misiorowski, Sanchez, Burns, Sale and Paul Skenes. Skenes’ ERA has risen to 3.62, and he hasn’t won in his past nine starts (and the Pirates lost all nine of those games). Look, are you taking Wrobleski over Skenes for the rest of the season? No, of course not, but Wrobleski had the better first half.
The league selected Max Meyer, Eduardo Rodriguez, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Webb, who was the questionable selection given his 5-6 record and 3.66 ERA. If Webb had been the only rep for the Giants, that would be understandable, but Arraez was already locked in. Again, Webb has the longer track record, and that was apparently the reason for his choice, but the league wasn’t necessarily consistent in that across the rosters.
Quick thoughts:
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Glad the league added Bryce Harper as a “legend” pick after the fans voted for Freddie Freeman and the players for Matt Olson. The game is in Philadelphia, and Harper is having an All-Star-worthy season, so he should be on the roster.
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Bryan Reynolds of the Pirates could be another snub, but the NL outfield was pretty loaded. Pete Crow-Armstrong, Corbin Carroll and James Wood were correctly voted in as the backups behind Juan Soto, Andy Pages and Brandon Marsh. Jordan Walker got the nod as a fourth outfielder, which was the right choice. Can we ship some of the NL outfielders to the AL?
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At least the NL added all those starting pitchers and no extra relievers beyond the three mandatory voted in by the players — Mason Miller, Jhoan Duran and Raisel Iglesias. If there’s one thing we don’t need, it’s more relievers in an All-Star Game. Oh, don’t worry, we’ll get to the AL.
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Who should start the game on the mound? Misiorowski has arguably been the best story of the first half, and that’s kind of the point of the All-Star Game. On the other hand, the game is in Philly and Sanchez leads in bWAR and is tied in fWAR. Considering the cost of an All-Star ticket, let’s give the ball to Sanchez and make the home fans happy.
American League
Biggest snub: Willson Contreras, 1B, Boston Red Sox
Contreras has the highest fWAR of any AL position player who didn’t make it at 2.8, ranking ninth. He trails only teammate Ceddanne Rafaela in bWAR at 3.6 to 3.5 (they rank sixth and seventh, respectively, among those who didn’t make the team). Look, Guerrero is one of the biggest names in the sport, but he’s not having an All-Star season, hitting .265 with just four home runs. Blue Jays first basemen — Guerrero — rank 28th in OPS. I’m all for giving the big names a little leeway, but it’s hard to make a case for Guerrero.
The players voted for Nick Kurtz, who should be starting, while the league added a second backup first baseman in Ben Rice, who has better power numbers than Contreras but trails him in WAR (his defensive metrics are awful, while Contreras is a good first baseman). As for Rafaela, his value is more on defense, but he might make it as a replacement for the injured Judge or Trout.
Second-biggest snub: Davis Martin, SP, Chicago White Sox
The AL pitching staff is a mess, in part because the league is a mess. Still, this made for the most nondescript All-Star staff ever selected. Part of the problem was having to get somebody from every team, so the league selected Jacob Latz to represent the Rangers (a reliever having a superb season) and Ranger Suarez for the Red Sox, who also had Aroldis Chapman selected. Both are perfectly fine selections. But the league also selected Michael Wacha, even though the Royals already had Bobby Witt Jr. on the team:
Martin: 9-3, 3.08 ERA, 96 IP, 90 SO, 2.9 combo WAR
Wacha: 5-5. 3.31 ERA, 108 IP, 84 SO, 2.4 combo WAR
I would have taken Martin over Wacha or a fifth reliever — Tampa Bay’s Bryan Baker — but again, we don’t need five All-Star relievers. The good news: Because several pitchers usually are replaced due to availability rules, Martin will likely eventually join the team.
Quick thoughts:
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With Ramirez injured, happy to see the fans voting in the scorching hot Junior Caminero as the starting third baseman. He’s 22, already on his second All-Star team, and he might have permanently seized this position from Ramirez. Caminero’s home run surge — he’s up to 25 — also has him climbing near the top of the list of the AL MVP race.
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Interesting that the players voted in two rookies, Kevin McGonigle and Travis Bazzana, as the backups at shortstop and second base, respectively. McGonigle is the right call, and Bazzana was probably the best option at the weakest position in either league (Ernie Clement is the starter at second base).
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Overall, considering we know Judge will miss the game and the pitching staff lacks many guys with longer-term résumés, this looks like one of the weakest All-Star rosters you’ll see. Or maybe it points to a stronger future with Witt, Caminero, Kurtz, McGonigle, Bazzana, Shea Langeliers, Parker Messick and Cam Schlittler as the new faces of the American League.
