Were the Right Replacements Picked in the MLB All-Star Game?

Recently, the talk around basically the entire internet has been about the 2025 MLB All-Star Game and the seemingly endless string of replacement players being added to this year’s event.

If you came here looking to escape that corner of the world wide web, I suggest you leave now and don’t look back.

The initial All-Star starting lineups were announced on July 2, with the rest of the rosters being revealed on July 6.

As always, there were a ton of players that got snubbed in the initial fan voting. That’s going to be unavoidable for as long as Major League Baseball continues to utilize the current voting system. However, where things can get even more tense is when the replacements end up being announced.

For a variety of reasons including injury, a start too close to the All-Star Game, or players simply needing rest, sometimes (many times, really…) players elect not to participate in the festivities. They’re still considered “All-Stars” and they still earn the label on their Wikipedia and Baseball Reference pages, but they don’t physically show up at the game.

Instead, a group of players that essentially fell under the “just missed” category get their shot at redemption. If a player missed getting into the game via fan vote by a hair, odds are they’ll get ushered in as a replacement when someone above them on the totem pole inevitably backs out.

As is the case with many things, even this can ruffle some feathers. Let’s take a closer look at the replacements in this year’s All-Star Game and determine if all of the wrongs were turned into rights.

More All-Star Game Coverage

For more coverage around the Just Baseball world on the All-Star Game, here are some links to get you up to speed on the happenings:

• Top 10 Biggest All-Star Snubs
• What the All-Star Game Starting Lineups Should’ve Looked Like
• Where Did Fans Get it Wrong on All-Star Voting This Year?
• Matthew Boyd Has Been the Cubs’ Top Starter – And Now He’s An All-Star
• Julio Rodriguez Is the Elephant in the Room In This Year’s All-Star Game
• Full Primer on All-Star Game Events

Every Replacement Player in the 2025 MLB All-Star Game

We’ll break down some more specific storylines in a bit, but here’s a list of all of the replacement/substitutes we’ve had come to be so far:

• Carlos Rodon (NYY) replaces teammate Max Fried.
• Maikel Garcia (KCR) replaces Brandon Lowe (TBR).
• Adrian Morejon (SDP) replaces Zack Wheeler (PHI).
• Casey Mize (DET) replaces Garrett Crochet (BOS).
• Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) replaces Matthew Boyd (CHC).
• Carlos Estevez (KCR) replaces Jacob deGrom (TEX).
• Randy Arozarena (SEA) replaces teammate Julio Rodriguez.
• Drew Rasmussen (TBR) replaces Yusei Kikuchi (LAA).
• Junior Caminero (TBR) replaces Alex Bregman (BOS).
• Andrew Abbott (CIN) replaces Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD).
• David Peterson (NYM) replaces Robbie Ray (SFG).
• Robert Suarez (SDP) replaces Chris Sale (ATL).
• Trevor Megill (MIL) replaces teammate Freddy Peralta.
• Isaac Paredes (HOU) replaces Jose Ramirez (CLE).
• Zach McKinstry (DET) replaces Jeremy Pena (HOU).
• Joe Ryan (MIN) replaces Hunter Brown (HOU).

Boy, oh boy, that’s a lot to keep up with! It’s possible that additional scenarios pop up between now and Tuesday evening, but the odds are pretty good that we’ve got our rosters set.

The Misiorowski Situation

By far the biggest controversy surrounding this year’s Midsummer Classic was the election of rookie right-hander Jacob Misiorowski. By now you know who this player is. He’s the flamethrowing starting pitcher who’s come up and taken the majors by storm, but he’s also the 23-year-old with five starts and 25.2 innings of work under his belt at the big-league level.

Yes, this player has been added to this year’s All-Star Game roster.

To many, this decision has been met by outrage. It’s not that Misiorowski hasn’t been rock-solid since debuting right around a month ago, but it’s simply unheard of to see a player with such little experience get put on one of baseball’s biggest stages so early into his career.

If there were ever to be an argument in favor of Misiorowski’s addition to the roster, it’s that at it’s core, the All-Star Game is meant to be fan entertainment. This game means next to nothing, so it makes some degree of sense to have MLB put one of its brightest and most electric young stars on the big stage. “The Miz” has one of the filthiest pitch mixes in baseball, so there’s certainly going to be some intrigue in seeing him added to a game that’s just supposed to be entertainment.

But the overarching feeling here is that it’s hard to argue with the people who are fired up about this choice. If we’re being honest, there are a lot more deserving candidates to take this spot on the roster, but we’ll get to them in a bit. Paul Skenes made (and started!) last year’s All-Star Game 11 starts into his own MLB career, but this time feels much more gimmicky.

Who’s Left on the Outside Looking in?

Misiorowski is a fantastic talent, but the fact of the matter is that there were a handful of starting pitchers who deserved that spot more.

One of them was Cristopher Sanchez, who was set to be front and center in this section of this article before reports surfaced that he was offered a spot on the All-Star roster but (apparently…) declined. Teammate Ranger Suarez reportedly did the same. Since complaining is fun, the league did Sanchez wrong by not officially naming him an “All-Star”, even if he declined their invitation.

Crochet and Rodriguez did the same, but they get to keep their All-Star label. At the very least, it’s nice that the Philadelphia Phillies are paying Sanchez his contractual bonus for being selected as an All-Star. The league may not be willing to do right by him, but his team will.

We’ve already covered the most outrageous All-Star snubs, but the problem with the replacement players is that if an NL outfielder doesn’t need to bow out of the festivities, someone like Andy Pages or Juan Soto can’t get in.

So that eliminates Soto, Pages, Seiya Suzuki, Michael Busch, and Trea Turner, as no NL position players needed to be replaced.

However, Framber Valdez, Nathan Eovaldi, and George Springer should not still be on the outside looking in.

Entering Sunday’s action, Valdez sat in a tie for ninth in the AL in ERA, with a 2.75 mark. He’s tied for third in the league in innings, fifth in FIP, and fourth in AL pitcher’s fWAR. By basically every major statistic, he was deserving to make this roster.

Eovaldi also deserves more love for how strong he’s been this year. The right-hander has made 15 starts in 2025, posting a sparkling 1.62 ERA, 2.30 FIP and 230 ERA+ through 83.1 innings of work. He’s a two-time All-Star (2021, 2023) but was somehow left off of this year’s roster.

It’s hard to believe that two additional pitchers were added as replacements instead of either Valdez or Eovaldi. Tyler Rogers in the National League also had a compelling case, but he was overlook in favor of some arms who were a bit less deserving like Peterson or Suarez.

Springer’s omission from the roster felt like one that would be fixed in the form of him being named as a replacement player. That announcement never came. The ageless wonder is 10th in the AL in wRC+ and OPS, while also hitting 16 home runs with 53 RBI. You’ll find his name in the top-15 in the AL in home runs, runs, RBI, BB%, ISO, OBP, and wRC+. Yet, he was overlooked while a perhaps undeserving Randy Arozarena made his way into the game.