The Biggest Rangers All-Star Snubs: These Four Players Should Feel Slighted

For the Texas Rangers the 2026 All Star game is all about pitcher Jacob Latz. But should he have had teammates going with him?

Latz as richly deserving of this selection. He's become one of the best relievers in the game. Before the season he was competing for a spot in the starting rotation and is now Texas’ closer.

Latz will be on his own in Philadelphia on July 14, but there are up to four Rangers that had strong cases for selection. They all have the right to feel snubbed, even if they end up being picked as an injury replacement. There are those Rangers snubs.

Josh Jung

MLB could have rewarded Jung for his resurgent season by selecting him as a reserve at third base. After a slow start the fourth-year pro has put together what could be the best offensive season of his career.

He's using the entire field and he's giving Texas clutch hitting practically every night and he's slashing .297/.362/.449 with nine home runs and 34 RBI going into Sunday’s game with Detroit. As evidence of the new approach, he leads the Rangers with 22 doubles.

Jung was probably forced out by the fact that every team must have an All-Star and the Chicago White Sox’s only selection is third baseman Miguel Vargas. He has a lesser slash at .245/.357/.491 but has hit 20 home runs.

Ezequiel Duran

Before Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Ernie Clement was the American League’s top vote-getter in Phase 1 voting, Duran was the second-highest vote-getter at the position. Had Clement not clinched his starting berth in phase one Duran would have faced off with Clement in phase two voting.

Like Jung, Duran is having a tremendous season, and it comes after losing some of his luster as player the past two seasons. He entered Sunday’s game slashing .273/.324/.410 with six home runs and 43 RBI. His ability to play infield and outfield has saved the Rangers on multiple occasions.

The reserve second baseman for the AL is Cleveland’s Travis Bazzana. The rookie is slashing .250/.341/.412 with seven home runs and 27 RBI. Two Guardians pitchers made the team. Duran has every right to feel slighted.

Jacob deGrom and/or Nathan Eovaldi

Texas Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi throws to the plate during a game. — Texas Rangers pitcher Nathan Eovaldi. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

This may come down to what MLB values when it comes to selecting these players. Eovaldi leads the Rangers with nine victories but as a higher ERA (4.02) than deGrom (3.48). Both have winning records and both have more than 100 strikeouts. deGrom has a slightly lower WHIP (0.99) than Eovaldi and batters are only hitting .208 against him.

President of baseball operations Chris Young talked about All-Star game criteria on Saturday and said that he feels like a pitcher like deGrom deserves to go every year based on his body of work. The AL team has quality starting pitching. But only one starting pitcher — Boston’s Sonny Gray — has more wins than Eovaldi. Guess what? Gray didn’t make the AL team, either.

Both pitchers have a right to feel a little slighted.

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