The first half of the 2026 season is almost complete. The All-Star break will be here soon, and then it will be time for teams to prepare for the second half and trade deadline.
For now, the rest of the first half remains. The All-Star game will take place on Tuesday night in Philadelphia, and the American League and National League will square off yet again.
The rosters are close to being finalized, as replacements can still be added. However, there are some key players missing from the National League’s roster that probably should be there. Here are two of them.
Justin Wrobleski
The Los Angeles Dodgers have long been able to churn out strong pitching prospects and turn them into quality starters. The latest example is left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who is 10-2 with a 2.69 ERA in 16 starts and has already covered 100 1/3 innings this season.
However, he is notably missing from the National League’s roster. The 25-year-old has been one of the biggest success stories of the season and certainly deserves to be on the roster.
Granted, the Dodgers have a lot of All-Stars this season, as they typically do, but the omission of Wrobleski is shocking to say the least, given his start to the season. He hasn’t been a big strikeout pitcher, but he has gotten the job done for Los Angeles, especially with all the injuries they’ve had to deal with in their rotation.
JJ Wetherholt
Perhaps even more shocking is the fact that JJ Wetherholt, who is a candidate for the National League Rookie of the Year award is nowhere to be found on the roster. The Cardinals have Jordan Walker and Riley O’Brien on the NL squad, but Wetherholt is missing.
He has hit .263 with 13 home runs, 36 RBI, nine stolen bases and a .763 OPS. While the Cardinals offense has cooled down just a bit, Wetherholt has remained one of the top run producers in the lineup.
The Cardinals wouldn’t be in contention without him, so it’s certainly surprising that he barely got any consideration to be on the roster this summer. Perhaps that could change with a few days left before the big game, but for now, the Cardinals have just two All-Stars, and Wetherholt is not one of them.
It will be interesting to see if anything changes in the next couple of days leading up to the break.
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