It’s a lot easier than it used to be putting together rosters for Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game. That doesn’t mean quality can’t slip through the cracks.
This year’s exercise, in advance of the July 14 affair in Philadelphia, will benefit greatly if, appropriately enough, America rallies in the final round of voting in this, her 250th year of existence.
See, in this era of online balloting, The Fans generally do pretty well. It’s just that this time around, six Toronto Blue Jays have been named as “finalists” for the American League, with a handful of them not deserving of the nod based on cold, raw data. Conversely, the Midsummer Classic is all about the zeitgeist of the game at the time. And Canadians’ fervor for their team – 44,000 jam into Rogers Centre, night after night – is worth celebrating, particularly as an example that almost any team can follow in these uncertain times of crying wolf.
Yet whether a handful more Jays join the top AL vote-getter, the beloved Ernie Clement, in Philly, there will certainly be a few All-Stars you might not have thought about. Here are six of them, all hoping the roster breaks their way when it’s released the evening of Saturday, July 4:
Remember this guy? Easy to lose him in the haze of all the misery in Flushing, yet Soto, still just 27, remains every bit as generational as we imagined. Though limited by injury to 66 games, Soto has nonetheless slugged 17 homers with a .298/.408/.563 line and leads all major leaguers with a 166 wRC+ and the NL with a 170 adjusted OPS.
And, lest we forget, he was not an All-Star last year.
This seems like a Captain Obvious pick but it’s also a clarion call to not take greatness for granted. Soto is among the outfield finalists in fan voting, but with the Mets’ 2026 debacle slowly unfolding, we can’t imagine he’ll outpoint worthy reps from contending teams. Perhaps the player vote will rescue him. But another All-Star shutout for Soto would be silly.
Juan Soto is having yet another highly productive season for the Mets, while Otto Lopez has arguably been the best pure hitter in the NL this season.
If your kids are clamoring for Luis Arraez, just tell them, “We have Luis Arraez at home!” That would be Lopez, who entered July 1 with six more hits than Arraez, a microscopic edge in batting average (.333 to .331) and an identical (.366) OBP while also stealing 16 bases. Oh, and he’s second in the NL with 3.6 fWAR. Most important, the Marlins are coming off a 20-6 June to place themselves in the thick of the NL wild card dogfight. They certainly deserve more than just a courtesy rep, which would figure to be starter Max Meyer. Second baseman Xavier Edwards would also be a fine option.
Good gravy: This dude has 26 home runs and a 119 adjusted OPS at the halfway point. As a catcher. Coors Field be damned.
Goodman seems a lock for Philly, but here’s where the roster vagaries come into play. The two “finalists” at catcher are the Dodgers’ Will Smith and Atlanta’s Drake Baldwin. Smith is never a bad choice but is having a league-average season at the plate and is on the IL with a neck injury. Baldwin is having a fantastic season, but injury has limited him to 60 games.
It would stand to reason that if Smith gets elected, Goodman would be added as an injury replacement. But the point here is that Goodman has that look of perennial All-Star – he earned his first nod last year – and deserves to be regarded as such. And as a foundational player for a franchise that looks more serious each month, Goodman is proof positive to the greater baseball world that the Rockies do, in fact, exist, a big reason why the All-Star Game is held, anyway.
Luis Garcia Jr., 1B, Nationals
A second baseman by trade, Garcia is in a tough spot, math-wise, now that he’s primarily a first baseman and listed as such on the NL ballot, where he finished 10th. That belies a first half in which he smacked six homers over six games recently and a major league-leading 13 since May 22. Overall, he’s at .281 with an .850 OPS and 16 homers.
A great year for a key cog of the major leagues’ surprise leader in runs scored. Yet as a first baseman, Garcia gets rather easily overshadowed by finalists and All-Star stalwarts Matt Olson and Freddie Freeman. And they have to find a way to get Bryce Harper on the squad in Philly, right?
It all adds up to what figures to be a tough break for Garcia, even as he’s one of the league’s most productive players.
Here’s a stat that actually doesn’t exist, but perhaps it should: Wacha is the only starter in the AL to average 19 outs per start. Wonky, huh?
But it’s also a rare and underappreciated skill. In an era when teams aren’t allowing many, or all, of their starters to face a lineup three times through, Wacha is actually getting them out three times a game, plus one more. As such, he leads the AL in innings pitched while ranking eighth in ERA (3.31) and 13th in WHIP (1.14) and averaging 6.39 innings per start.
And any manager exhausted from juggling openers and followers, and reliever shuttles from Class AAA and back, would absolutely appreciate what Wacha does for them: Finding just 10 more outs, on average, the nights he pitches.
On paper, it might look a little obnoxious to include Goldschmidt. After all, Ben Rice is the club’s primary first baseman and has a shot to win the fan balloting at the position. Two first basemen from the same team?
Paul Goldschmidt has a 1.156 OPS against left-handed pitchers this season.
Yeah, those optics aren’t great at all, but at some point we need to make concessions to the modern game. And part of that is acknowledging the import of platoon players, even those on the short side of the equation. Goldschmidt falls 30 plate appearances shy of qualifying for league leaders, yet with 14 home runs, 41 RBIs and an .867 OPS in just 233 plate appearances, he’s kept the Yankees afloat at times this year. Against lefties: A .371/.456/.730 line, with eight homers in 103 plate appearances, helping the Yankees go 19-13 against left-handed starters. Goldschmidt lacks the gravitas of a Kershaw or Pujols or Miggy Cabrera to be a “commissioner’s special” pick or whatever they call it, but at 38, he’s still a borderline Hall of Famer and ex-MVP. Would be cool to see him in Philly.
For better or worse, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will debut the “reliever of the year” award for the AL and NL after this season. Recognizing All-Star relievers for a half-season of work can be even more volatile, particularly in this era when true closers are scarce.
So let’s consider Taylor: Tied for third in fWAR (2.1) among AL relievers, ranks fourth with 13.38 strikeouts per nine innings, a 1.98 FIP and has entered in high- or medium-leverage situations 19 of 28 games. It’s nothing that will get him a plaque at year’s end, but for an emerging club like the White Sox to post a 17-10 record in one-run games, a lot has to go right. Taylor – who has 16 outings of more than one inning pitched – is often a part of that.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB’s should-be 2026 All-Stars: Seven players deserving a trip to Philly
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