Texas Rangers: Joey Gallo Snubbed from All Star Game Start

MLB All-Star Game voting ended at 4:00 PM EST on Thursday. Despite having a breakout season for the Texas Rangers, Joey Gallo was not selected to start in this year’s mid-summer classic.

The Texas Rangers had two players that were pushing for All-Star Game nods in the final stage of fan voting. Hunter Pence, a strong candidate for Comeback Player of the Year, earned the 1st place vote to be the starting DH for the American League. Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo was not so lucky.

Joey Gallo, who is in the middle of a breakout season, finished seventh out of nine in All-Star voting for American League outfielders. The three starters that were selected were the Angels’ Mike Trout, along with George Springer and Michael Brantley, both from the Houston Astros.

Strong cases can be made for all three that were voted in as starters. Mike Trout is the best player in baseball and both Springer and Brantley have been very good players for Houston, especially Springer. As a matter of fact, just for the sake of argument, I’ll concede Trout and Springer both deserve a starting nod ahead of Gallo. But Joey Gallo should have made it in over Michael Brantley.

Brantley is a fine player. Joey Gallo is a potential MVP candidate if the Rangers continue their pace of a 90-win season. Michael Brantley has been healthy all season, playing in 78 out of 82 games this year for Houston, while Gallo has only played 53 of the Rangers’ 81 games. Brantley also has a much better batting average. But Joey Gallo exceeds Brantley in many categories like home runs, RBI’s, on-base percentage, OPS, and WAR. As a matter of fact, when pointing out Joey Gallo’s OPS, it’s the best in the American League at 1.103.

More from Texas Rangers News

• Early 2023 MLB mock draft has Texas Rangers selecting an Ohtani-lite
• 3 Texas Rangers outfield trade targets not named Bryan Reynolds
• Did Jacob deGrom really mean what he said at his Texas Rangers press conference?
• Martin Perez accepting the qualifying offer looking like solid deal for the Rangers
• 4 outfielders the Texas Rangers can still pursue this winter

The only negative that hurts Gallo’s value at all in the oblique injury he suffered on June 1st. He missed 21 games due to the injury, while the Rangers continued to compete for a playoff spot. But for a player like Aaron Judge to finish fourth in the All-Star voting while only playing 25 games just further provides ammunition for those against fan-voting for who starts in the All-Star Game.

The idea of fan-voting is great for sports in theory, but it always causes controversy when worthy players like Joey Gallo, or Pittsburgh’s Josh Bell, get left out. Fan interaction is vital for the growth of the sport, but there has to be a limit. When players who are deserving get left off, or vice versa, it just makes it a popularity contest.

Joey Gallo is an All-Star caliber player. As stated before, he’s also a potential MVP. Whether the All-Star Game ends up happening for him when the reserves are announced or not, he’s more than deserving. He’s made the necessary adjustments to be more than just a 40+ homerun per year guy. He’s trending in the direction of becoming a superstar.

Even worse and more laughable is that no one has invited him to participate in the Home Run Derby. Baseball can snub Joey Gallo. But if these Rangers continue to prove people wrong, Joey Gallo will have the last laugh.