KC Royals finally get full All-Star vindication after most glaring snub is selected

Kansas City Royals fans can finally rejoice that order has been restored and all is finally right in the world as Maikel Garcia is at long last a 2025 All-Star.

After what seemed to be a never ending cycle of snub after snub, the MLB made the right decision to name him as an All-Star on Friday afternoon.

MLB officially announced that Garcia will be taking the place of the injured second baseman Brandon Lowe, who will miss next week's festivities after the Tampa Bay Rays placed him on the injured list on Friday with an oblique injury.

KC Royals Maikel Garcia finally gets well deserved All-Star nod

As the saying goes, it's better late than never. No saying encapsulates the Maikel Garcia All-Star saga better than this, as the MLB passed him over on five separate occasions before Friday's news.

It's not news that the league's initial choice of selecting a pair of stars in Alex Bregman and Jazz Chisholm Jr. was a controversial one. While both are talented and having great season in 2025, they've missed their fair share of games due to injury, enough games to question whether or not they had enough appearances to warrant a selection at all.

Then when it came to replacing the series of infielders in Bregman, José Ramírez and Jeremy Peña, the league opted for Junior Caminero, Isaac Paredes and Zack McKinstry respectively.

While Paredes and McKinstry made great cases to be selected - each hold mildly better wRC+ and fWAR totals to Garcia - Caminero was the replacement selection that was the easiest to point to and say the league got it wrong.

Other than power metrics (HR and SLG) and RBI, Garcia has clearly been the superior hitter to Caminero this season.

Thankfully though, all of this becomes entirely moot now that Garcia got the nod, as while it's been a frustrating journey the Royals finally have their fourth All-Star.

Garcia joins the likes of shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and starting pitcher Kris Bubic, who were named in the initial Sunday announcement of reserves and pitchers, and Carlos Estévez who also rightfully found his way to the American League's midsummer classic roster on Friday to replace Jacob deGrom.