MLB snubs KC Royals' Cy Young contender in All-MLB predictions

It felt like the MLB season was just crossing the quarter pole, but now, with more than a third of the season in the books, the conversation is shifting toward hardware. All-Star voting is about to ramp up, and soon the Futures Game and MLB Draft will take center stage. However, MLB.com’s crew is taking a different approach—looking ahead to predict who might fill out this year’s All-MLB Team. Thankfully for Kansas City fans, shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. made the list. But what’s more intriguing is who didn’t.

When readers scroll down to the pitching selections, some of the game's best left-handed starters fill out the ranks. Players like Detroit Tigers' Tarik Skubal and New York Yankees' Max Fried are no surprises, But what is surprising is the absence of the Royals’ own lefty ace, Kris Bubic—not just from the first team, not just from the second team, but with no votes at all.

Why is MLB.com sleeping on KC Royals pitcher Kris Bubic?

Bubic enters the series against Skubal’s Tigers with a sparkling 1.45 ERA—the second-lowest among qualified MLB starters, trailing only Fried. He’s also among the game’s best at limiting hard contact and generating soft outs that the Royals’ defense can handle. While he may not boast the same velocity or strikeout numbers as the other All-MLB contenders, Bubic excels at stranding baserunners (86.8% left on base, third in MLB) and keeping the ball in the park (0.40 HR/9, fourth in MLB).

Despite boasting one of the best all-around pitching staffs this season, the lone Royals pitcher listed on MLB.com’s All-MLB projection is another lefty: Cole Ragans. While Ragans has delivered some electric outings and ranks among baseball’s top strikeout artists, his game-level performance doesn’t quite stack up to Bubic’s. Royals fans shouldn’t stress too much about splitting hairs over who the team’s best pitcher is right now, though. Kansas City's starting rotation is currently the most valuable in the AL—and second-best in MLB overall.

It’s worth speculating whether national writers simply don’t believe Bubic’s hot start will stick—an understandable skeptical approach. After all, this is by far the best start to a season he’s had, and it marks his largest starting workload since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2023. While Bubic was electric as a reliever in the latter half of 2024, that performance was easier to explain: he’s always flashed a tantalizing arsenal throughout his Royals career, but consistency over an entire season has been elusive.

These exercises are always fun mid-season questions to ponder, but fans will inevitably see just how different these early lists look compared to the final product. Predicting accolades is never a perfect science, and Bubic’s omission from this iteration proves that even the best players can be overlooked.