2021 All-Snubbed Team: All the players who should be All-Stars but aren't

By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer

Happy snub season!

The All-Star reserves have been announced, which means aggrieved fan bases across this great land are taking to their social media platform of choice and boldly claiming that their favorite player has been unfairly left off the All-Star team. I can relate to this feeling; see the J.P. Crawford blurb below. 

But the reality is these teams can’t be 50 players each. So while I’m not going to argue for players being undeserving of the trip to Denver, the roster limits do result in a large group of players who are having excellent seasons being left on the outside looking in. These are players who seem like All-Stars but are squeezed out due to particularly loaded positions or the rule requiring that every team have at least one All-Star (a rule I wholeheartedly support, by the way). 

Alas, these guys didn’t get the invite. And so I present the 2021 All-Snubbed Team.

(Note: Some of these players will likely join the festivities as replacements for All-Stars who elect not to attend or are unable to participate due to injury. Hopefully, we will ultimately see some of this list at the Midsummer Classic.)

C Yasmani Grandal

Sox fans were especially disgruntled to see their OBP king ignored in favor of another bleak batting average slugger in Mike Zunino (who is good), and I get it. Grandal’s spectacularly bizarre .190/.388/.441 line is a modern statistical marvel made possible only by the fact that he’s walking a ridiculous 24.3% of the time, easily the highest rate among hitters with at least 200 plate appearances. Those OBP skills for a catcher deserve to be celebrated, but the Rays needed an All-Star more than the White Sox needed another one, so Grandal was out of luck here.

1B Yuli Gurriel

Gurriel was so bad in the shortened 2020 season at age 36 that I began to wonder if his performance had completely fallen off a cliff entering his late 30s, never to return to its previously excellent levels. Wrong! Very wrong! He’s batting .322 with the third-lowest strikeout rate (9.1%) in baseball as one of the key contributors in a loaded Houston lineup. Most importantly, are we really going to leave out the league leader in sacrifice flies??? Ridiculous. 

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2B Whit Merrifield

Merrifield is having a relatively down year for the Royals by his standards, but the man with the most steals in baseball and an above-average bat deserves to be an All-Star. 

3B Yoán Moncada

Another Sox hitter who has played at an All-Star level this year, Moncada was understandably squeezed out by the historically excellent American League third-base crop (Rafael Devers and José Ramirez this year, not to mention Alex Bregman and Matt Chapman, who were also left out). Moncada has been a crucial part of the Sox's offense while Luis Robert and Eloy Jiménez have been injured. Also, I would love to see what Moncada would pull off for the All-Star Red Carpet Show on Tuesday because you know he’d have something wild cooked up.

SS J.P. Crawford

Let me put my Mariners fan hat on for a second and say that this is a COMPLETE TRAVESTY, AND THE 2021 ALL-STAR GAME CAN NO LONGER BE TAKEN SERIOU- OK, I’m just kidding. I get it. There are a lot of awesome shortstops out there, and Crawford has been hot for only the past month or so. But he has turned into a cornerstone player for the Mariners franchise, and the fact that he’s showcasing a legitimately strong bat to complement his elite defense is such an exciting development.

OF Starling Marte

He has Star in his name — what more do you want? Marte has missed a lot of time due to injury, but when he has been on the field, he has been Miami’s best player by far. He’s currently rocking a career-high .859 OPS while playing his traditionally excellent defense in center field.

OF Tyler O’Neill

He’s still striking out an outrageous amount, but O'Neill has been the Cardinals’ best player and is having the kind of breakout season that usually includes a trip to the All-Star Game. Now, perhaps we can get our muscular friend in the Home Run Derby ...

OF Steven Duggar

OK, I’ll admit, there are definitely better outfielders worth mentioning here, but I have to shout out Duggar, who has the second-highest OPS on the team with the best record in baseball. That seems like a descriptor of someone who is usually in the All-Star Game! I am still having trouble wrapping my head around the 2021 San Francisco Giants, but I had to give some love to one of their more inexplicable, invaluable players. 

DH Yordan Álvarez

They were never going to have four DHs on the team, with Shohei Ohtani, Nelson Cruz and J.D. Martinez already making it, but shame on us for forgetting how unbelievable a hitter Álvarez is after he played in only two games for the Astros in 2020. And he’s still just 24.

SP Max Scherzer

There is no shortage of excellent pitchers who missed out, but are we really about to do an All-Star Game without Nationals star Max Scherzer? When his ERA and WHIP would both be career lows if the season ended today? I’m excited to see some of the younger, lesser-known arms in this year’s game, but let’s not pretend Mad Max has slipped at all.

SP Clayton Kershaw

We can keep thinking that Kershaw is about to actually, maybe, possibly, finally decline, but it ain’t happening, friends. His strikeout rate is the highest it has been since 2016, and his slider has become one of the truly dominant pitches in baseball. He’s currently tied for fifth among starting pitchers in fWAR. He’s Clayton Kershaw! This isn’t complicated! As with Scherzer, it’ll just be weird to not see the Dodgers' star in Denver.

SP Freddy Peralta

OK, I’ve paid my respects to the future Hall of Famers, so now I have to talk about a younger guy who absolutely belongs on the All-Star team. If it seems like overkill to have three Brewers starting pitchers in the game, consider that Peralta has a nearly identical WHIP and a lower ERA in more innings pitched than his teammate Corbin Burnes. It isn't an accident that the Brewers are in first place. They have three dynamite starters, not just Burnes and Brandon Woodruff.  

SP Taijuan Walker 

The Mets' season will be defined by Jacob deGrom no matter what, but Walker has been as steady as they come all season and has proven to be one of the best free-agent signings of last winter. It has been a winding road for the once-top prospect, but it has been awesome to watch him figure it out on one of the game’s biggest stages for a team that always needs reliable performers. 

SP Chris Bassitt

It ain’t sexy, but Bassitt has developed into a huge part of Oakland’s success as the A's continue to push for another postseason appearance. His 2020 breakout has continued into this season, and his 106.2 IP ranks fifth among pitchers. That’s to say nothing about his performance in those innings, which has also been good, but I think it’s especially valuable to have an innings-eater such as Bassitt in today’s game when so few pitchers go deep into games.

RP Scott Barlow

Need I say more about Barlow?

RP Collin McHugh

McHugh has had some excellent seasons as both a starter and a reliever in Houston, but the Rays have turned him into a dynamite, multi-inning relief weapon in 2021. He has appeared in only 16 games but has pitched 29 tremendous innings, posting a 2.17 ERA and 1.36 FIP, which is third-lowest among relievers behind only Josh Hader and Craig Kimbrel. On a team that always has a boatload of spectacular relievers, McHugh has been the best of the bunch. 

RP Edwin Díaz

If it seems like you haven’t heard much about Díaz this year, consider that a good thing! After his catastrophic 2019, in which every blown save for the Mets was treated like a national tragedy, Díaz has settled back into being one of the most electric arms on the planet. Would you believe me if I told you that he hasn’t allowed a home run yet this season? Well, you should! Because it’s true.

RP Kenley Jansen

Jansen has certainly had some shaky outings, and he’s walking a troublingly high number of guys, but hey, his ERA is 1.30, he’s tied for second in baseball with 21 saves, and most incredibly, he’s throwing harder than he has … basically ever?! Jansen is a modern marvel and remains a key cog in the machine that is the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He lives in Maryland but is a huge Seattle Mariners fan and loves watching the KBO, which means he doesn't get a lot of sleep. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_. You