Alex Rodriguez deserves to be an All-Star, but ...

Alex Rodriguez deserves to be an All-Star.

His .902 OPS is second among qualifying American League designated hitters, behind Prince Fielder. His 16 home runs are the most of any DH. The numbers say he belongs in Cincinnati, and the numbers are what should matter.

The All-Star Game is not the Hall of Fame. It is not a referendum on a player's career — or a moral stance on whether he used performance-enhancing drugs.

Spare us the ethical hand-wringing over whether A-Rod's documented PED use should disqualify him from an All-Star selection. It shouldn't. More than that, precedent suggests otherwise: Nelson Cruz and Jhonny Peralta — like A-Rod, recipients of Biogenesis-related suspensions — are fan-elected starters this year.

A week ago, I had a conversation with Robinson Cano about the All-Star Game. He told me that he believed A-Rod should be lauded by Major League Baseball and the crowd in Cincinnati for his career achievements — similar to Mariano Rivera in 2013 and Derek Jeter last year. That's unrealistic, of course, because A-Rod is not beloved like Rivera and Jeter (for a variety of reasons). But A-Rod is respected by many of his peers in the major leagues, including stars like Cano; among them, the notion of a salute to A-Rod is not absurd at all.

And yet, here are two reasons I won't express outrage at A-Rod's exclusion from the Midsummer Classic:

1. The fans had their chance to vote him in. If they truly wanted him there, he would have finished higher than fifth among AL designated hitters — more than 7 million votes behind Cruz.

2. If A-Rod had been named to the All-Star team, he'd dominate much of the pregame discussion in Cincinnati. Would the debate draw greater attention to this year's Midsummer Classic? Perhaps. But it would drain plenty of oxygen from what people who love the game should be discussing: the tremendous influx of young talent to the sport.

The All-Star Game has a complicated identity: It determines home-field advantage for the World Series, yet its heritage is as a summertime exhibition for fans. It's supposed to celebrate the greatest players in the game, while also leaving room on rosters to honor breakout stars of the first half. In some years, the Midsummer Classic does an admirable job of satisfying its many constituencies. In other years, it doesn't.

But in 2015, with a new commissioner and evolving sports preferences in the U.S., it is paramount that MLB leverage its All-Star Game into a stage for Mike Trout and Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant and Joc Pederson, Manny Machado and Nolan Arenado. We need to learn more about their stories. By now, we're familiar enough with the tale of Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez.