Reds first half standout snubbed as unfortunate victim of flawed All-Star process

Eric Cole

Cincinnati Reds v Cleveland Guardians / Jason Miller/GettyImages

For Cincinnati Reds fans, Andrew Abbott's triumphant return in mid-April from a shoulder injury should have him in the 2025 Cy Young conversation. It is hard to argue with the reasoning there as Abbott boasts a 2.15 ERA across 15 starts and he has been a big reason why the Reds have been as competitive as they have been in 2025.

Unfortunately, when All-Star rosters were revealed on Sunday. Abbott's name was not among them. Reds fans had been preparing for his snub for a little while, but it is still wild to see that a starter in the National League who has been as dominant as Abbott has been could be overlooked for the Midsummer Classic.

In Abbott's case, it appears as though his omission from the All-Star Game is more a function of a flawed selection process than anything else.

Andrew Abbott was a snub, but Reds fans should point their ire at the entire selection process

Here is the fundamental problem with how All-Stars are selected. MLB wants voters to have agency over who plays in the game, but they also want to have players involved AND for each team to have representation in the game. What you end up with are All-Star rosters that don't usually have only the best of the best and who are generally biased towards markets with energetic and/or massive fan bases.

Abbott was already facing an uphill battle to get picked. Not only is the National League loaded with good pitching in 2025, but he started the season on the injured list and therefore doesn't have the counting stats that get the attention of players for the vote. Combine that with Freddy Peralta being the Brewers' sole representative and you can see where adding Abbott was probably doomed from the beginning.

Is Abbott having a better season than guys picked over him for the ASG like Peralta and Matt Boyd? Probably, and you could make the case for him over others as well. Unfortunately, the All-Star Game isn't the award for excellence that it should be. Instead, it is how MLB wants to showcase it's product to a nationwide audience and that is bound to overlook guys like Abbott every single year.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.