Phillies' Trea Turner Rips 'F--king Terrible' MLB All-Star Snubs, 'What a Joke'

Philadelphia Phillies players are not thrilled with Major League Baseball for bypassing Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez to include Milwaukee Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski on the NL All-Star team.

Speaking to The Athletic's Matt Gelb, Trea Turner described it as "f--king terrible" to put Misiorowski, who has only made five starts since being called up on June 12, on the team over Sánchez or Suárez.

"What a joke," Turner said. "That’s f--king terrible. I mean, that’s terrible, dude."

Nick Castellanos didn't use the same strong language as Turner, but he did share criticism of MLB that Gelb noted he once heard former Phillies reliever Craig Kimbrel say.

"It’s turning into the Savannah Bananas," said Castellanos.

MLB announced on Friday that Misiorowski was taking the place of Chicago Cubs starter Matthew Boyd on the NL roster for the All-Star Game.

Per MLB.com's Adam McCalvy, Misiorowski will have the fewest games played by any player to make the All-Star team (five). The previous record was 11 set by Paul Skenes last year when he started for the NL.

The Phillies' complaints get into part of the philosophical discussion about the All-Star Game and what it represents. If it's supposed to be honoring the players who performed the best over the first three months of the regular season, Sánchez or Suárez are more deserving of a nod than Misiorowski.

Suárez has the second-best ERA in MLB (1.94) among all pitchers with at least 80 innings. Sánchez is fourth in ERA (2.59) and sixth in FanGraphs' WAR (3.0) among all qualified NL pitchers.

Misiorowski has thrown 25.2 innings, posting a 2.81 ERA with 33 strikeouts in five starts.

However, if the main purpose of the All-Star Game is to be a marketing tool for the biggest present and future stars of the sport, Misiorowski should be on the team. He has been arguably the most talked-about player in MLB since making his debut one month ago. Misiorowski, a second-round pick in the 2022 draft, was a known commodity as a top-100 prospect entering this season.

This situation also exposes the flaws in how MLB puts the All-Star roster together. By insisting that all 30 teams have at least one representative, it reduces the number of spots available to more deserving talents.

Phillies players are right to defend their teammates who have put together All-Star resumes even though they aren't being rewarded with a trip to Atlanta, but grumbling about Misiorowski being added to the squad misses the bigger point of what the game is about.