2026 MLB All-Star Game rosters were revealed 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:

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 player here as he’s seventh in bWAR among NL position players and eighth in fWAR, making him the top guy 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 nice season, but Turang was better in 2024, he was better in 2025, and he’s 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.

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  • The second mistake was the players voting in San Francisco’s Luis Arraez as the backup, although this one is much closer with Arraez’s combo WAR coming in at 3.1. Arraez is hitting .326, so players do like batting average, but has 61 runs and 51 RBIs versus totals of 44 and 32 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 as he’s gone 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 ranking eighth in ERA. The players voted for Misiorowski, Sanchez, Burns, Sale and Paul Skenes. Skenes has seen his ERA rise to 3.62 and he hasn’t won in nine starts (and the Pirates lost all nine of those games). Look, are you taking Wrobleski over Skenes the rest of the season? No, of course not, but Wrobleski had the better first half.

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    The league selected Max Meyer, Eduardo Rodriguez, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Logan Webb, with Webb 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:


    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), while he trails only teammate Ceddanne Rafaels in bWAR at 3.6 to 3.5 (they rank sixth and seventh). 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 Guerrero’s case.

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    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 the defensive side of things, but he might eventually make it as a replacement for the injured Judge or Trout.

    Second-biggest snub: Davis Martin, SP, Chicago White Sox

    Look, the AL pitching staff is a mess in part because the AL 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 to represent the Red Sox. 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 (again, having a fine season, but we don’t need five All-Star relievers). The good news: Given several pitchers usually end up being replaced due to availability rules, Martin will likely eventually find himself on the team.

    Quick thoughts:

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