All-Star Game Participation Is Sticking Point for Managers

PHILADELPHIA — The two managers in Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park have a clear message for all those chosen to play in the midseason showcase: You should be here. 

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, leading the National League squad, and Blue Jays manager John Schneider, leading the AL, each gave polite but unmistakable calls for players to be more accepting of playing in the All-Star Game. 

This year’s event has been not only hit with injuries to top stars such as the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and Yankees’ Aaron Judge, but a series of voluntary opt-outs among selected players, particularly pitchers. 

“I’ve always believed that it’s an honor to be named an All-Star, to be able to participate in this game. I didn’t have that. I wasn’t a good enough player to be an All-Star,” Roberts said, referencing his prior, 10-year playing career, often as a reserve. “The way the game is now where there’s rest, recovery, injuries, which are certainly validated, I still try to encourage players to participate because it is for the fans. It’s a fans’ game.”

Points of Conflict

MLB’s All-Star Game, like comparable events in other pro leagues, grapples with an increasing tension between its own status as an exhibition contest and the far higher competitive stakes of the season around it. Escalating player salaries and impact of those high-paid players going down with injuries further exacerbate that tension. 

Schneider, however, pointed to the MLB All-Star Game’s key role in connecting different eras and generations of baseball. 

“This event is so much about the players that are here now, but the players that have been here before and that will be here later, to where you’re recognized as the best of the best,” Schneider said. 

With the various player replacements, 77 total players have been named MLB All-Stars. The American League starting lineup, released Monday, will have three replacements alone between injuries to Judge, the Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and the Twins’ Byron Buxton. 

While that number of All-Stars is similar to recent years, the qualitative impact is far higher this time around. That’s due to the absence of Ohtani and Judge, the game’s two most popular figures, and the series of players with lighter, fatigue-related issues choosing not to compete. 

After a 3% viewership drop last year, game broadcaster Fox could have a higher climb to regain audience momentum. 

Some of the pitchers opting out of competition Tuesday, such as the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler and Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski, still traveled to Philadelphia and have been part of other All-Star Game activities. That’s not the same, though, as playing in the game itself.