Royals Send Bobby Witt Jr., Kris Bubic To All-Star Game, With One Massive Snub
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Major League Baseball is great because you can never quite predict how a season will play out.
Coming into the year, if we'd been told the Kansas City Royals would have one position player and one pitcher on the All-Star team, we'd have nailed one of the two guesses, then been totally perplexed on the other.
Naturally, it's shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. heading to Atlanta to represent the lineup. Okay, so ace Cole Ragans is joining him? Ragans is hurt, you say? Well it must be Seth Lugo, then?
Still no? Michael Wacha? Michael Lorenzen? Uh... is Brady Singer still on the team?
No, it's lefty Kris Bubic, who wasn't a lock to make the rotation in spring training and spent last season working entirely out of the bullpen, who will don the Royals colors on the mound for the American League.
Witt hasn't been Bobby Witt Jr. at full powers, but 80 percent of Witt's peak is enough to make an All-Star appearance. But Bubic is what an All-Star Game is all about--a first-timer who has had plenty of struggles at the big-league level, and who worked out all the kinks to finally become a star.
Unfortunately, that definition applied perfectly to another Royals player, who was one of the game's most notable snubs.
Third baseman/utility man Maikel Garcia could have been named an All-Star on Sunday. Frankly, he should have been named an All-Star. And hopefully, in the final few days before the game, he will be.
Garcia, who owns a a .303/.361/.465 slash line this season, could be named as an injury replacement for either Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña or Boston Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman.
More MLB: Royals Trade Rumors: Teams 'Closely Scouting' KC's $45 Million All-Star
Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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