{"id":749572,"date":"2026-07-12T07:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T07:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/749572\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T07:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T07:09:15","slug":"zack-wheelers-teammates-react-to-phillies-star-rejecting-mlbs-all-star-pity-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/749572\/","title":{"rendered":"Zack Wheeler’s teammates react to Phillies star rejecting MLB’s All-Star ‘pity party’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zack Wheeler<\/a>\u2019s Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> teammates have backed their man amid the ongoing All-Star selection controversy.<\/p>\n

The Phillies pitcher turned down MLB\u2019s late offer for him to serve as an injury replacement in Tuesday\u2019s All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pa. Wheeler stated that he felt disrespected by the league, which treated him like \u201ca fifth option\u201d<\/a> despite posting All-Star-worthy numbers at the midway point of the season. Wheeler called his late invite a \u201cpity party\u201d that he was not willing to attend.<\/p>\n

Phillies ace Christopher Sanchez, one of two Philadelphia pitchers named an All-Star this season, sympathized with his comrade.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an All-Star in my heart,\u201d Sanchez said through his interpreter<\/a>, via The Athletic\u2019s Charlotte Varnes. \u201cThe same thing happened to me last year. Same situation. I think they\u2019ve got to fix that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three-time All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto also stood by Wheeler and called it a \u201cmistake\u201d that MLB left the 36-year-old right-hander out of the Midsummer Classic.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in this clubhouse was surprised,\u201d Realmuto said. \u201cTo see what he\u2019s done in his career and then to have the type of surgery he had and still be the same dominant guy as soon as he returned and had a great first half \u2026 I thought it was definitely a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Sanchez and standout closer Jhoan Duran<\/a> have made most of this season\u2019s pitching headlines, Wheeler has arguably been the Phillies\u2019 best pitcher when healthy.<\/p>\n

Wheeler leads all qualified Phillies starters with a 2.28 ERA and 0.91 WHIP across 14 starts this season, with Philadelphia going 12-2 in those contests.<\/p>\n

Instead of participating in his 4th All-Star game in front of his home fans, Wheeler is reportedly spending the break at the beach with his family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zack Wheeler\u2019s Philadelphia Phillies teammates have backed their man amid the ongoing All-Star selection controversy. The Phillies pitcher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,17178,14550,4,144,25,4216,40,117],"class_list":["post-749572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-phillies","tag-baseball","tag-christopher-sanchez","tag-jt-realmuto","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-philadelphiaphillies","tag-phillies","tag-zack-wheeler"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116905755495734108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}