No All-Star starters marks latest chapter of disappointing 2025 season for KC Royals

After losing their ninth game in their last 11 at T-Mobile Park against the Seattle Mariners, the Kansas City Royals continue to not live up to the expectations they set for themselves after miraculously making the postseason last year.

They sit seven games below .500 at 40-47, 5.5 games out of a Wild Card spot and currently hold the fourth worst record in the American League.

While Kansas City's pitching has held up their end of the bargain, it's been well documented how their offense has not.

And it was that offense that provided the latest blow to the Royals after the second phase of MLB All-Star fan voting closed and the Royals found themselves without a starter for this season's midsummer classic.

KC Royals fail to send a starter to 2025 MLB All-Star Game

When voting closed Wednesday afternoon and results were revealed later that evening, the Royals lone chance of sending a starter to Truist Park on July 15 was thwarted after Bobby Witt Jr. finished behind Athletics rookie Jacob Wilson.

Now there's definitely reason to think that Witt had a real shot to finally start in his first All-Star game this season. He does have the edge over Wilson in fWAR (4.0 vs. 2.9), but that's largely due to the fact he's the superior, defender and baserunner.

As valuable as those aspects are, and a huge reason as to why Witt remains in the MVP conversation, according to the latest MLB.com poll, even when his performance at the plate is down from his MVP runner-up campaign in 2024, defense and baserunning don't nearly carry the weight of excitement that offense does and voters likely look for.

At the end of the day though, offense is the flashier part of the game for a position player and Wilson is the superior hitter this season. His 138 wRC+, .853 OPS and .339 average are notably higher than Witt's 123 wRC+, .827 OPS and .286 AVG. And even when Witt has the upper hand, it's not nearly as much, as he holds just two more homers than Wilson and five more RBI.

But, whether or not you agree with the voters decision is a story for a different day. The votes are in and all has been decided. Witt will almost certainly find his way to Atlanta on July 15, but unfortunately it will have to be as a reserve again.

It's sadly fitting that this is how the voting process turned out for the Royals. They're fading day by day out of postseason contention with every painful loss. They hold several position players who consistently find themselves severely underperforming. All of this led the way to the Royals entering Wednesday's losing effort with the lowest runs per game total in MLB this season at 3.31.

With how poor their offense has been and the multiple losing periods the team has gone through this year, why would they have a starter, right? It's now just another item to add to the list of things that haven't gone the Royals way this year.

Witt should undoubtedly find his way onto the AL roster soon, but for now he'll have to wait alongside Royals fans for that hopeful news to be delievred.