Trea Turner? Ranger Suárez? No, there were no real All-Star snubs for the Phillies, or anyone else

Not every All-Star exclusion is an All-Star snub.

Such is the case with Phillies lefties Cristopher Sánchez and Ranger Suárez and, especially, shortstop Trea Turner.

They were left off the National League All-Star team despite presenting fine bodies of work through the first half of the season. Their bodies of work do not approach those of teammates Zack Wheeler and Kyle Schwarber, actual All-Stars whose exclusions would have been overt and unforgivable snubs. Their bodies of work give them passable arguments for inclusion, but nothing absolute or incontrovertible.

The term snubbed implies, perhaps unintentionally, that a person or persons intentionally excluded a player who was clearly more deserving than his peer. That certainly happens from time to time, most often in the NBA and WNBA, where the pool of elite players almost always is far greater than the number of roster spots. It happens in the Olympics, too. Just ask Isiah Thomas and Caitlin Clark.

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The rules governing the rosters have changed plenty since 1933, but today they are thus: In each league, fans vote for nine position-player starters. Players vote for nine backups, five starting pitchers, and three relievers. The final six players are chosen by the commissioner’s office: four pitchers, two position players. All 30 teams must be represented.

This isn’t the sort of argument a hometown columnist traditionally fills, myself included. We tend to promote our own.

I’m generally writing columns that present Nick Sirianni or Doug Pederson as coach of the year candidates; or talking about how Tyrese Maxey should be an All-Star; or pushing Ben Simmons or Dario Saric (!) as rookie of the year; or, as I did for several years, campaigning for MVP in support of my good friend Joel Embiid.

This time, I cannot make those arguments in good faith.

No one this season has more acknowledged with fuller throat than I the effort of Turner to finally play to the level of his $300 million contract. Turner earned that contract by posting an .845 OPS and an average 4.2 wins above replacement over his first seven full seasons. In his 3½ seasons as a Phillie, that OPS is more than 50 points lower and his WAR is an average 3.2.

The NL starter will be the Mets’ Francisco Lindor, whose talents dwarf Turner’s but whose current campaign is comparable. The backup will be Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz, currently my favorite player to watch. His .487 slugging percentage is slightly better than Turner’s .451, but then, Turner has been asked to become more of a contact-first leadoff hitter. He has done so.

» READ MORE: Zack Wheeler? Kyle Schwarber? Trea Turner? No, Rob Thomson is the Phillies’ MVP so far

De La Cruz still makes a lot of errors, like Turner, but Lindor remains a far better fielder than Turner, who continues to benefit from some outrageously generous scoring decisions. And as much as I hate to say it, you have to ignore the Baseball Savant defensive metrics here. Most metrics place Turner as the fourth-best shortstop in the majors, which is simply laughable — and again, I acknowledge Turner’s effort that has raised his level of defense to completely acceptable.

What this demonstrates much more clearly than his defensive improvement, which is significant, is the occasional unreliability of defensive metrics.

Had Sánchez made a second consecutive All-Star team I would not have voiced outrage, but he did have a three-game stretch at the end of May when he looked rather pedestrian. You might argue that Sánchez deserves the spot more than Nationals strikeout artist MacKenzie Gore, who has been less consistent than Sánchez. OK.

At any rate, Sánchez wouldn’t pitch in the All-Star Game next Tuesday, anyway, since he’s scheduled to pitch Sunday in San Diego.

I’d argue that Suárez deserves it more than Sánchez because Suárez has been utterly dominant for the last two months, allowing three earned runs or fewer in 11 starts in a row and allowing one or zero earned runs nine times. Nine.

Then again, Suárez missed the first month with a bad back. All-Stars can’t miss that much time. (Clayton Kershaw’s inclusion is a roster exception.)

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I’d have liked to have seen Padres starter Nick Pivetta, a former Phillies prospect, decorate his long and winding road with an All-Star trip: he’s 9-2 with a 3.25 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP.

It’s not just the Phillies. For the first time in a long time, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of injustice regarding the All-Star rosters.

You could make a case for Juan Soto, who ranks third among everyday outfielders with 21 homers and second among everyday outfielders in OPS, at .904. But he hit .229 with a .755 OPS in his first 56 games as the new Mr. Met, and with the team losing 14 of 17 during the heat of the voting, the $765 million man got no love for his and his team’s recent resurgence.

New York’s a tough town.