Phillies

There are People Who Thought Francisco Lindor Deserved the All-Star Game Over Trea Turner

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 10th, 2024 · 9:52 AM EDT

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Trea Turner hit a grand slam in the Phillies’ 10-1 win over the Dodgers on Tuesday night:

Trea Turner, my goodness 😳

The @Phillies are up 8-0 in the 4th. pic.twitter.com/w6GRyiDJ8a

— MLB (@MLB) July 9, 2024

Prettiest home run swing in baseball. Turner was 3-4 on Tuesday and has 12 hits in seven July games. He’s currently slashing .342/.387/.516 with a .903 OPS. All four of those numbers are higher than his career averages.

He’s an All Star starter and plays SS on the best team in baseball. There are, however, those who thought the hamstring injury and lack of games disqualified him from the running, notably Mets fans who think Francisco Lindor deserved the spot:

Trea Turner and his 46 games is the NL All-Star starting SS. And I’m supposed to take All-Star appearances seriously?

— Mets Vent (@metsventpage) July 3, 2024

Trea Turner has only played in 46 games this season.

Was Francisco Lindor robbed of an All-Star spot? pic.twitter.com/RhwXAQGS4w

— MetsMuse (@MetsMuse) July 3, 2024

Shame on US as @Mets fans for not voting Lindor into the ASG as a starter over Trea Turner. Our guy has more hits, HRs and RBIs from the lead off spot. He’s also a year younger. We owe you an apology, @Lindor12BC. #LGM

— Lou Vega (@alliancelou) July 7, 2024

The last tweet there encapsulates the problem. It’s the fan vote that determines starters for both the NL and AL. The pitchers and the reserves are then a combo effort between player ballots and the commissioner’s office. The managers used to be involved, but they changed that years ago. And bottom line is that short stop was a crowded position this year. Turner won the vote and then Elly De La Cruz and Mookie Betts were in the mix with Lindor. The arguments on Twitter look like the Jokic vs. Embiid arguments of years prior. Mets fans talking about fWAR and def fWAR and shit like that. Soon they’ll be talking about RAPTOR and fDURDORK. Something like that. Total games aside, Trea has been consistently good throughout the season while Lindor started off slow. He was pretty brutal through the first month or two of the year, when the Mets were dog shite. They’ve clawed back to become an average team now. Turner has played fewer games but been better in a larger percentage of those compared to Lindor. He plays for a better team with a more energized fan base. Nobody should be surprised by any of this.