MLB All-Star Game Injuries Reshape Rosters as Ohtani, Judge, Guerrero Jr. Sit Out in Philadelphia

The 2026 All-Star Game is set for Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and by the time first pitch arrives at 8pm ET on FOX, the rosters will look almost nothing like the ones fans actually voted for. That’s not a knock on the event — it’s become the defining reality of the modern Midsummer Classic. Between load management, back-to-back workloads, and the physical toll of a 162-game season, All-Star week has turned into as much a study in roster attrition as it is a celebration of the game’s best players.

The Vote Winners Who Won’t Play

Shohei Ohtani was the National League’s leading vote-getter and was elected the starting designated hitter for his sixth All-Star selection, but the Dodgers superstar will sit this one out due to left knee inflammation. Stepping into that spot is Iván Herrera of the Cardinals, who has quietly put together a strong first half — a .249 average, 11 home runs, 40 RBIs, a 122 OPS+, and a .384 on-base percentage that ranks eighth in the NL. It’s the kind of call-up that used to be reserved for a true afterthought pick; now it’s a legitimate All-Star replacing the sport’s biggest name.

On the American League side, Aaron Judge was elected as a starting outfielder but is also out, with Cody Bellinger sliding into the Yankees slugger’s spot in the lineup. Ceddanne Rafaela of the Red Sox was tacked onto the AL roster as the corresponding injury replacement. It’s a reminder that even the players fans are most eager to see under the lights sometimes can’t answer the bell — a dynamic that’s become common as teams increasingly prioritize the stretch run over an exhibition game, no matter how prestigious it remains.

A First Base Situation Nobody Saw Coming

Nowhere has the roster shuffling been more chaotic than at first base for the AL. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. earned his sixth career All-Star nod as the fans’ pick at first, but the Blue Jays star opted out to rest an ailing lower back and head home to Tampa instead. His original replacement in the starting lineup was supposed to be Nick Kurtz of the Athletics — except Kurtz landed on the injured list too, unable to suit up. That left Ben Rice of the Yankees to start at first base for the AL, a job he likely didn’t expect to have when the week began.

The roster-level replacement for Guerrero went to Willson Contreras of the Red Sox, who has been one of the better stories in baseball this season — a .285 average, 19 home runs, 56 RBI, and a 157 OPS+ that made him a natural fit even before the vacancy opened up. Tristan Peters of the White Sox stepped in for the injured Kurtz on the roster as well. If you’re scoring at home, that’s three separate injury dominoes at a single position, and it says plenty about how thin the margin is for making an All-Star team stick this time of year. For bettors tracking these roster shakeups alongside the summer odds boards, plenty of that action runs through a DraftKings Promo Code as the second half of the season gets underway.

More Names In, More Names Out

The changes didn’t stop with the headline names. Byron Buxton, an AL starter, was placed on the injured list July 7 with a reaggravated right hip impingement, opening a spot for White Sox rookie Munetaka Murakami, who had just returned from missing over a month with a Grade 2 right hamstring strain himself. On the pitching side, a starter connected to a Sunday turn ahead of the break was replaced by Nick Martinez of the Rays — a routine but important wrinkle of the format, since starting pitchers scheduled to throw the Sunday before the game are typically ruled ineligible regardless of how well they’re pitching.

The NL roster saw its own late-week churn. Foster Griffin of the Nationals replaced Chase Burns of the Reds on July 11, and Justin Wrobleski of the Dodgers replaced Braxton Ashcraft of the Pirates that same day — with Ashcraft himself having replaced Jacob Misiorowski of the Brewers just days earlier. It’s a chain of substitutions that shows how fluid these rosters really are once pitching availability, workload, and health start colliding in the same 10-day window.

The Snub Conversations and the Manfred Wildcard

Even before the injury dominoes started falling, there was a healthy debate about who got left off. Names like Brice Turang, Sonny Gray, and Zack Wheeler came up in the conversation, while Jonathan Aranda and Contreras were both discussed as snubs at first base and DH before Contreras ultimately found his way onto the roster as an injury replacement. Yandy Díaz, Kurtz, and Rice were all mentioned as borderline candidates before injuries opened doors that got some of them onto the field anyway — proof that in a long season, patience sometimes pays off more than a preseason prediction ever could.

Commissioner Rob Manfred also exercised his “Legend Pick,” adding Phillies star and two-time NL MVP Bryce Harper to the NL roster for his ninth All-Star selection. It’s a mechanism the league uses to guarantee star power and local flavor for the host city, and with the Phillies already leading all clubs with a half-dozen All-Stars — including Brandon Marsh, Kyle Schwarber, Jhoan Duran, Cristopher Sánchez, and Jesús Luzardo alongside Harper — Philadelphia gets its hometown moment no matter how the ballots shook out. Sportsbooks have leaned into that storyline heavily in their FanDuel Promo Code offers built around the game.

What It Says About the Modern All-Star Format

None of this diminishes the event — if anything, it highlights how the league has adapted. Fan voting, player input, and managerial discretion all feed into the initial rosters, but the replacement process has become just as important a piece of the machinery, especially with a fresh wave of first-time All-Stars adding intrigue of their own. Twenty-six players will make their first appearance in this year’s game, a mix of established veterans finally breaking through and rookies riding hot starts into their first taste of the spotlight. The names on the field Tuesday night won’t be identical to the ones fans picked back in early July, but between Harper’s ninth selection, Contreras’s breakout campaign, and Herrera and Rice getting unexpected moments in the sun, the show still delivers. That’s the strange beauty of the modern Midsummer Classic — the show goes on, even when half the marquee changes at the last minute. If you’re looking to get in on the action for the second half, checking out a BetMGM Casino Promo Code or browsing the latest Caesars Sportsbook Review is a good place to start before MLB’s stretch run heats up.