Royals stars didn’t get much love in the player voting for All-Star Game either
A debate continued to simmer Monday morning on social media about the Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm being selected as a reserve for the All-Star game instead of Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia.
From the perspective of Royals fans, Garcia losing out to Chisholm is a bitter pill to take, given the history of hard feelings between those two players. That bubbled up during last month’s kerfuffle at Kauffman Stadium.
It’s interesting to note that neither of those players received much love from their peers. While All-Star Game starters are voted by the fans, the reserves and pitchers are selected by players and the MLB commissioner’s office.
Neither Garcia nor Chisholm finished in the top two in voting by peers at third base. The Guardians’ José Ramírez was the runaway leader in player balloting (746 votes), followed by Boston’s Alex Bregman (193). Only the top two vote-getters were released by MLB.
That wasn’t the only voting result that Royals fans might find interesting.
Shortstop
Oakland A’s rookie Jacob Wilson was voted by the fans to start at shortstop in the All-Star Game, edging Royals star Bobby Witt Jr.
Witt also didn’t win the vote among his peers. Houston’s Jeremy Peña (511 votes) beat out the Royals star (402). Witt, who finished second in last year’s American League MVP voting, has a 4.2 Wins Above Replacement (WAR), per Baseball Reference.
That’s fifth-best in the American League. Peña is third at 4.6, so it’s not a shock that Peña edged Witt, who was still picked as a reserve for the July 15 game.
Pitching staff
Royals starting pitcher Kris Bubic ranks 10th in the AL (3.4) and has the fifth-best ERA (2.36). However, he wasn’t among the top five starting pitchers in player voting.
Detroit’s Tarik Skubal (365) was the leader, followed by the Red Sox’s Garrett Crochet (348), the Yankees’ Max Fried (313), the Astros’ Hunter Brown (285) and Rangers’ Jacob deGrom (216).
Nevertheless, Bubic was chosen as a reserve.
Royals closer Carlos Estévez’s 24 saves are second-most in the American League behind Houston’s Josh Hader (25). But Estévez didn’t finish in the top three of voting for relief pitchers.
Boston’s Aroldis Chapman (245) was the leader, while Hader (181) and Seattle’s Andrés Muñoz (168) rounded out the top three.
The Athletic’s Jayson Stark shared the final results of how MLB players voted for each position for the All-Star Game. Witt is the only Royals player shown on the results.
The All-Star Game will be played at Truist Field in Atlanta, home of the Braves.
This story was originally published July 7, 2025 at 9:55 AM.
