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The non-all-star All-Stars: Lindor, Gil and other MLB snubs at each position

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The non-all-star All-Stars: Lindor, Gil and other MLB snubs at each position

Look, I know how these guys feel. Here at The Athletic, a handful of writers were chosen to wax poetic about the superstar players who made this year’s All-Star team. And the rest of us were left out, our rightful place on the roster outrageously overlooked due to some weird, overly complicated selection process.

We are the snubs. And we’re all in this together.

Here, then, is our non-all-star All-Star team, the most worthy players at each position who didn’t hear their names called Sunday night and were not — at least, so far — selected for the midsummer classic.

Note: Starting position players are selected via fan vote, and players vote for eight pitchers plus one backup at each position. The league selects the final few players to round out the rosters, ensuring every team has a representative.

Catcher

Patrick Bailey, San Francisco Giants

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Neither league is carrying a third catcher this season (and it’s pretty easy to argue that each league picked the correct two guys behind the plate), but Bailey would have been a worthy addition (the league instead chose outfielder Heliot Ramos and ace Logan Webb as the Giants’ representatives). Throwing and framing metrics have Bailey as one of the best defensive catchers in baseball, and wRC+ puts him basically on par with Salvador Perez offensively. Bailey debuted just last year. He’s going to make an All-Star team at some point.

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First base

Christian Walker, Arizona Diamondbacks

A word of advice for anyone trying to make an All-Star team: Try not to play in the same league, at the same position, as Bryce Harper and Freddie Freeman. Those two were selected to their eighth All-Star teams this season. Walker has yet to make one. He has the third-most homers in the NL (behind All-Star DHs Shohei Ohtani and Marcell Ozuna), and he ranks 10th in the NL in wRC+ (but that’s still behind both Harper and Freeman). Walker could still make the team if Harper’s hamstring strain keeps him out of the All-Star Game, but the Phillies seem to expect Harper to return this week.

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Second base

Brice Turang, Milwaukee Brewers

WAR is not a perfect metric, but it’s useful shorthand for a player’s all-around impact. By the Baseball Reference version of WAR, Turang is the fourth-best player in the entire National League. The FanGraphs version isn’t quite so bullish, but it still has him 20th in the NL, which is 30 spots higher — and more than 1.5 WAR better — than the NL’s backup second baseman, Luis Arraez. Turang doesn’t have Arraez’s batting average, but he does have more power, more stolen bases and far superior defensive metrics. The players, though, chose Arraez.

Shortstop

Francisco Lindor, New York Mets

Had Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (who’s missed considerable time with an injury) not been voted in as the NL starter, there might have been room for Lindor, who ranks seventh in the league in fWAR. But the Cincinnati Reds’ Elly De La Cruz (as a replacement for injured Mookie Betts) was chosen by the players, and the league chose CJ Abrams as the lone representative of the Washington Nationals, which left no room for Lindor or Willy Adames of the Milwaukee Brewers. A total of 40 players have at least 2.5 fWAR so far this season, and nine of them are shortstops (11 if you count multi-positional Willi Castro of the Minnesota Twins and Josh Smith of the Texas Rangers). Shortstop snubs were inevitable, even with seven chosen between the two rosters.

Third base

Jordan Westburg, Baltimore Orioles

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Five third basemen rank in the top 18 in American League fWAR, and there simply wasn’t room for all of them on the roster. The fans voted for José Ramírez, the players voted for Rafael Devers, and the league chose Isaac Paredes as the Tampa Bay Rays’ representative. That left Westburg as the odd man out. He might have made it had he been listed as a second baseman — he’s played about a third of his games at second — but Westburg, Paredes and Smith have fairly similar numbers, and there just wasn’t room for all of them.

Outfield

Willi Castro, Minnesota Twins
Colton Cowser, Baltimore Orioles
Brandon Nimmo, New York Mets

Castro doesn’t fit neatly onto an All-Star ballot. He’s played at least 20 games at five different positions — second base, third base, shortstop, center field, left field — sometimes getting turns at multiple spots in a single game. Despite all that moving around, he’s produced a 130 wRC+ and the sixth-highest fWAR among all qualified outfielders in either league. Yet, he didn’t make the AL team. Neither did Orioles rookie Cowser (or his teammate, Anthony Santander) or any number of defensive standouts (notably, Daulton Varsho of the Toronto Blue Jays). The NL outfield was a little more wide-open, but Nimmo had at least as good a case as any outfielder on the NL bench.


Brent Rooker rounds the bases after hitting a three-run home run against the Orioles. (D. Ross Cameron / USA Today)

Designated hitter

Brent Rooker, Oakland A’s

David Fry is one of the most surprising standouts of the first half. He’s made double-digit starts at catcher, left field and designated hitter — with a handful of innings at first base, third base and right field — and he’s helped keep the Guardians in first place with the 10th-best wRC+ among players with at least 200 plate appearances. Rooker, though, has similar offensive numbers (155 OPS+ to Fry’s 161) while getting almost 100 more plate appearances and hitting more than twice as many home runs (18 vs. 8).

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Starting pitchers

Ronel Blanco, Houston Astros
Jack Flaherty, Detroit Tigers
Luis Gil, New York Yankees
George Kirby, Seattle Mariners
Cristopher Sánchez, Philadelphia Phillies

If you last checked in three weeks ago, you might have assumed Gil was a lock for the AL staff. As of mid-June, he had a 2.03 ERA through 14 starts and seemed a worthy replacement for injured Gerrit Cole atop the Yankees’ rotation. But Gil’s past three starts — heading into a Sunday night matchup against the Red Sox — resulted in three straight losses and a 14.90 ERA, which pushed his season ERA down to 3.41, 15th-best in the AL. Four starters with an ERA below 3.00 failed to make either team (Blanco, Sánchez, Brady Singer of the Kansas City Royals and Jake Irvin of the Nationals). Same for the major-league leader in strikeout-to-walk ratio (Kirby) and the leader in xFIP (Flaherty) who also has the third-best strikeout rate and the fourth-best expected ERA. Inevitably, though, a few selected starters will opt out, which means some of the initial snubs will ultimately make it.

go-deeper

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Relief pitcher

Trevor Megill, Milwaukee Brewers

The first-place Brewers landed two players in the NL starting lineup, but no one on the bench (three of their infielders deserved consideration) and no one in the bullpen (they have the fourth-best bullpen ERA in the majors). Closer Megill and setup man Bryan Hudson rank fifth and sixth in Win Probability Added, and either one would have been a justifiable addition, but the NL Players’ Ballot selected two non-closers (Matt Strahm and Jeff Hoffman of the Philadelphia Phillies), forcing the league to use five of its six at-large spots to find lone representatives of the Mets (Pete Alonso), Nationals (Abrams), St. Louis Cardinals (Ryan Helsley), Chicago Cubs (Shota Imanaga) and Miami Marlins (Tanner Scott). The one truly at-large selection in the NL went to Webb.

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(Top photo of Francisco Lindor: Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty Images)

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Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam is a ‘generational matchup,’ WWE legend JBL says

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Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam is a ‘generational matchup,’ WWE legend JBL says

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Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar’s feud will come to a head at SummerSlam in August, and the showdown has the potential to be WWE’s match of the year.

Femi beat Lesnar at WrestleMania 42 and led to “The Beast Incarnate” deciding to retire – at least for a moment – at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Lesnar made a dramatic return a few weeks later, challenging and beating Femi at Clash in Italy.

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Oba Femi looks on during Monday Night RAW at Allstate Arena on July 6, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Melina Pizano/WWE via Getty Images)

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At SummerSlam, Femi and Lesnar will do battle inside a Hell in a Cell.

WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield called the next meeting between Femi and Lesnar a “generational matchup.”

“I’ve never seen anything like Oba – well, I have. I’ve seen Brock,” he told Fox News Digital. “It’s very much the carbon copy of Brock coming in. Brock coming in was like, oh my God, who is this guy? The guy can even talk, and he’s gonna be one of the biggest stars in wrestling. Not only could he talk, he’s a really smart guy. Brock became one of the biggest draws in professional wrestling. He came one of the biggest draws in UFC. It’s an unbelievable story, and now you got somebody who can rival that character.

Brock Lesnar in action against Oba Femi during “Monday Night Raw” at TD Garden on March 23, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Michael Owens/WWE via Getty Images)

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“This Oba Femi comes out with the silly little walk he does. Everyone kinda does it, it’s like The Bushwackers. But the whole arena does it. I was in Vegas and I didn’t want to go to the matches and deal with the traffic and deal with the backstage area, and so I kinda just watched it in a sports bar. I stood in the back where nobody could recognize me, and as soon as Oba came out, the entire sports bar was sitting there doing that Oba Femi dance. The guy is just unbelievably over.

“I really think that somewhere in the NFL this year, you’re going to see an entire NFL arena doing this dance. You’re gonna have somebody like Saquon Barkley or ‘King’ (Derrick Henry) or some of these guys do this dance, and it’s infectious. Once one of them does, one of these great running backs or wide receivers, or somebody scores a touchdown, that’s when I think you’re gonna see entire arenas doing it. I just think Oba Femi is lightning in a bottle and Brock has always been that way. This is, to me, a generational matchup.”

Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi face off during WrestleMania 42: Night 2 at Allegiant Stadium on April 19, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)

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SummerSlam will take place on Aug. 1 and 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

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Commentary: ‘I don’t want any handouts.’ Amid the Angels’ drought, a starry homecoming for Mike Trout

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Commentary: ‘I don’t want any handouts.’ Amid the Angels’ drought, a starry homecoming for Mike Trout

Mike Trout last played in an All-Star Game seven years ago. It’s crazy, really. The best player of the previous decade, the link that ties Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols to Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, has not taken an All-Star at-bat this decade.

Injuries, mostly. And he turns 35 next month.

Next week’s All-Star Game takes place in Philadelphia, about 40 miles north of Trout’s hometown of Millville, N.J. Major League Baseball reserves a potential All-Star roster spot or two each summer for distinguished players: Bryce Harper and Justin Verlander this year, Clayton Kershaw last year, Pujols and Miguel Cabrera in past years.

That could have been Trout’s spot this summer: a worthy honor for a three-time most valuable player, a local hero feted on the national stage the Angels have failed to provide him.

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“I wouldn’t have done it,” Trout said.

Not even at home?

“It’s an honor to get voted in and represent the American League,” he said. “For me, I don’t want any handouts.”

Trout is an All-Star for the 12th time, the old-fashioned way: He earned it.

Fans voted him into the starting lineup, with the most final-round votes of any AL outfielder. His peers voted him as one of the top three outfielders in the AL.

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“It means a lot,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot of hurdles, a lot of adversity. I put some hard work in, and I did not let up. I could have easily got down on myself and not pushed through it and not come back.

“I know what I am capable of. I know I have the confidence to get back to the player I used to be.”

His .874 OPS entering play Thursday ranks second among AL outfielders, a career season for many players. In 11 of his 14 full seasons — all but the previous three — he has posted a higher OPS.

In April, in a four-game series against the New York Yankees, Trout hit five home runs and drove in nine runs.

“Everything was clicking,” he said. “When I first came up, that’s how I felt the whole season.

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“Just to be able to get that feeling back, that little spark, to know it’s still in there, it makes you feel pretty good.”

For him, so does playing in Philadelphia. The first time he played there with the Angels, Millville basically closed down for the night, and just about everyone in town boarded a bus to the game. Then Trout had an exceptionally rare experience, a visiting player cheered at the home of the boo.

Mark Gubicza can testify to that. Gubicza, the two-time All-Star pitcher and now the Angels’ television analyst, grew up in Philadelphia.

“I don’t care if you were God himself, if you were wearing a different color uniform, I was still booing you,” Gubicza said. “But he was cheered.”

Still is. Trout is a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan, with his season tickets not in some climate-controlled luxury suite but along the sideline.

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“The players all walk by him and say ‘Trouty!’ ” Gubicza said. “Before they all go out to get their heads beat in, they’re all saying hi.

“He’s not one of those guys that comes there to be seen. He’s going there to root. That’s why they love him: He’s one of us.”

Said Trout: “I know how passionate I am about the Eagles. From my experience as an Eagles fan, it’s just different.

“It’s like win or die.”

It’s not like that in Southern California, where almost no one listens to sports-talk radio, and where a nice day is always a day away.

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No one would begrudge Trout for living year-round along the Orange County coast. (OK, maybe Philadelphia fans would.)

Roy Hallenbeck, Trout’s high school coach, remembered visiting years ago on what he called “a perfect day” and asking Trout how he could ever get tired of all that sunshine.

“Yeah, coach, I couldn’t live here,” Trout told him. “‘I need my seasons.”

Trout built a family home near his boyhood home. He built his Trout National golf resort, with a course designed by Tiger Woods, in Millville.

He is as loyal to the Angels as he is to Millville. He appreciates the team that “took a chance on a kid from a little town in southern New Jersey” and signed him to two nine-figure contract extensions.

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Trout was the last Angels player to take a postseason at-bat, in 2014. Even amid baseball’s longest playoff drought, he still considers Anaheim a special place, and always will.

“It’s where it all began,” Trout said. “I think the fuel of people doubting us kind of makes it more of a fire for me to try to get back to the playoffs. I think that’s the biggest key for me.

“Could I take the easy way out and just leave? Yeah. But I think — I said this last year around this time, but it’s the same feeling I’ve been having — I really haven’t sat down and talked to anybody about it specifically, but I know there’s a time where, if things change, who knows? I don’t know. But, for me, right now, my focus is on trying to get this club back in the playoffs.”

At the All-Star Game, Trout might well hear Phillies fans beseech him to come play for the home team. However, Hallenbeck said, the hometown folks no longer are as strident in that long-held wish.

“I think the overriding sentiment of most people I talk with, even Phillies fans, is we would all — as people that know him, love him and care for him — love to watch him play relevant baseball in August and September,” Hallenbeck said. “It doesn’t matter where. It doesn’t matter who. Just being relevant late in the season would be something we would all love to see.

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“Hopefully, it’s with the Angels. They’ve been so good to him. We’d love to see it there.”

So would we. In the meantime, in the absence of a World Series, Trout deserves to enjoy his homecoming game.

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London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France

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London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France

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Public unrest began in parts of London late Thursday night, and it appears Morocco’s exit from the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the hands of France is the reason.

France took down Morocco 2-0, eliminating the African country for the second consecutive tournament, this time in a quarterfinal match.

As a result, many feared Paris would erupt into riots, especially after the chaos that followed Paris Saint-Germain’s UEFA Champions League victory over Arsenal in May. 

Instead, images and videos from Edgware Road in northwest London showed police clashing with large crowds as smoke billowed through the streets and debris littered the roadway.

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A police vehicle is parked in a road as people from pro-Palestinian activist groups gather near the Edgware United Synagogue during a demonstration against the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” organized by real-estate agency My Home in Israel, which markets property in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in London, Britain, June 14, 2026. (Toby Shepheard)

Riot police, equipped with shields and body armor, tried to contain the crowds as they clashed with people launching fireworks and throwing debris. One video also appeared to show an officer down.

KYLIAN MBAPPÉ, OUSMANE DEMBÉLÉ FIRE FRANCE INTO WORLD CUP SEMIFINALS WITH WIN OVER MOROCCO

It’s unknown what happened to the officer who was down on the asphalt or how he was injured.

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Fans waved Moroccan flags in the middle of the streets, which held up traffic. Some even jumped on top of vehicles trying to get through the area.

Moroccan fans in the stands before a FIFA World Cup 2026 quarterfinal match between France and Morocco at Boston Stadium July 9, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (Richard Sellers/SportsphotoAllstar)

Similar scenes unfolded after Egypt’s World Cup exit, when Argentina rallied for a controversial 3-2 victory that featured several disputed officiating decisions.

Paris, on the other hand, looked more like a city celebrating than one on the brink of a riot. Supporters of both France and Morocco flooded the streets, slowing traffic in several parts of the city.

One video showed horns blasting from cars with French and Moroccan flags out the windows on the L’avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Supporters on the side of the road, waving their own flags, joined in on the celebration.

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France’s Kylian Mbappé scored his eighth goal of this World Cup, which ties him for the most with Argentina’s Lionel Messi. Ousmane Dembélé also scored in the second half for France in the 2-0 win over Morocco.

It’s the third straight semifinal appearance for France, while Morocco still made World Cup history despite the loss. After becoming the first African country to reach the quarterfinals and semifinals in World Cup history in 2022, Morocco added to that by becoming the first-ever African nation to reach more than one quarterfinal.

Moroccan fans react while attending a watch party for the World Cup round of 8 match between France and Morocco in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 2026. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)

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Morocco’s exit means there are no more African nations alive in the World Cup. France will be taking on the winner of Spain and Belgium, while England and Norway and Argentina and Switzerland face off in the quarterfinals.

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