MLB finally rectifies KC Royals All-Star snub (but not the most egregious one)

The 2025 All-Star Game is mere days away with many of the league's brightest stars congregating at Truist Park in Atlanta for the 95th annual midsummer classic.

I say "many of the league's brightest stars" and not "all of the league's brightest stars" because every year there are a series of players who seem unjustly snubbed of their chance to perform under the brightest lights in MLB's ultimate showcase of individual talent.

While the Royals came up empty-handed after fan voting to send starters to Atlanta, they at least were vindicated somewhat in the reserve and pitcher selections with Bobby Witt Jr. and Kris Bubic getting initial nods.

However, there were plenty more Royals deserving of All-Star nods who missed out on Sunday, including their electrifying closer Carlos Estévez.

The league managed to rectify Estévez's situation though on Friday afternoon after they announced him as the replacement for Texas Rangers starter Jacob deGrom, who's pitching on Saturday and will not pitch during the All-Star Game for rest purposes according to Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

However, as exciting as this news is for Royals fans and as deserving as Estévez is to be there, it's hard not to dwell on the fact that the most egregious snub was has not had his situation rectified in Maikel Garcia.

KC Royals closer Carlos Estévez named as All-Star replacement

Let's start by celebrating the good news here, and that's the fact Estévez's stellar debut campaign as Royal is being recognized league-wide. This will be his closer's second career All-Star selection, after getting the nod in 2023 as a member of the Los Angeles Angels.

The closer sits tied with now fellow All-Star Josh Hader in Houston for the most saves in the American League at 25, while also pitching to an impressive 2.03 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and .190 BAA.

Other than the saves, it's hard not to argue against the MLB's initial choice in relievers of Hader, Seattle's Andrés Muñoz and Aroldis Chapman were justified as their stats were similar to if not better than Estévez's. It was more just disappointing that the league opted for just three relievers initially.

Maikel Garcia is still not an All-Star amid breakout campaign

Now onto Garcia, who's had as rough a week as any All-Star snub.

He was passed over during the initial All-Star naming process this past weekend, with the league instead opting for the controversial decisions to send injured stars in Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman and Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. instead.

Then after Bregman, Cleveland's José Ramírez and Houston's Jeremy Peña were all deemed out for Tuesday's festivities, the league named Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero, Houston's Isaac Paredes and Detroit's Zach McKinstry as replacements in that order. That's three more times Garcia could've been named and yet still wasn't. And if you're doing the math at home, that's five opportunities in total where he could have reasonably been selected.

Now, the latter two on this list have justifiable cases to be named All-Stars. Garcia (2.6 fWAR and 128 wRC+), Paredes (2.7 fWAR and 133 wRC+) and McKinstry (2.9 fWAR and 131 wRC+) all hold similar overall value metrics when it comes to fWAR and wRC+, but as you can see, Paredes and McKinstry both edge him out ever so slightly.

However, neither of those two were the first ones selected as replecements, it was Junior Caminero who was the first infield replacement made. Other than run production stats and SLG - where Caminero's 23 HR, 59 RBI and .509 SLG clearly exceeds Garcia's 8 HR, 40 RBI and .464 SLG - Garcia is the better hitter across the board. This goes for AVG, OBP, OPS, wRC+, fWAR.

After naming a pair of players who hadn't played nearly as many games Garcia and then annoucning a clearly inferior replacement right off the bat, it's hard not think that MLB has made a series of egregious mistakes.

So while, Royals fans will surely be buzzing at the fact that they have a third All-Star in Estévez, the moment is still somewhat marred by the belief that they've been wrongfully slighted of four.