Indians: Jose Ramirez at the very least deserves to be an All-Star this year

No Indians player including Jose Ramirez advanced in the All-Star voting.

No Indians player will be heading to the mid-summer classic without some type of help. Jose Ramirez represented Cleveland’s best chance to make the All-Star Game but he lost out to the likes of middling players like Alex Bregman and Yoan Moncada. Neither man is having All-Star caliber seasons but because they play in large markets, they got past Jose Ramirez in voting.

Ramirez was an obvious All-Star, having led or being close to the lead in every statistical category for AL third basemen. Yet, Ramirez will likely miss the game unless he’s selected by the coaches or someone gets injured.

The amount of disrespect this Indians team is getting, and in turn, the amount that Ramirez is getting for carrying a team full of injured guys is astonishing. One would think that Ramirez would be able to get more votes than he got for single-handily keeping the Tribe in the playoff race while half the team has injury issues of some kind.

Jose Ramirez may not get in but some players from the Indians should.

The Indians had several guys that would warrant a spot, namely the entire bullpen. Shane Bieber was a lock before his injury, and of course, there’s Ramirez who should’ve been a lock. Yet, none of them have been picked. In the case of the bullpen guys, pitchers aren’t part of the fan vote. They and the reserves for the team get picked after the fact; as the MLB.com website explains it;

"Pitchers and reserves for both teams will be determined through a combination of Player Ballot choices and selections made by the Commissioner’s Office."

So it’s possible that Ramirez and a few relievers do make the team after the fact. Yet, the very fact that Ramirez lost out to Bregman and Moncada is a direct slap in the face to the very nature of voting. It’s supposed to be the best candidates, not the ones with the biggest media share.