No one is disputing Major League Baseball’s most glaring All-Star snub to date.

But in Los Angeles, the Dodgers are making the case for a potential oversight of their own.

Justin Wrobleski is not Zack Wheeler, the longtime Phillies ace who is 9-1 with a 2.28 ERA in 14 starts –– in his return from a season-ending blood clot removal procedure last year, no less –– yet hasn’t been selected for a Midsummer Classic in his home ballpark.

After Wheeler, though, there aren’t many other non-All-Stars more deserving than Wrobleski; the third-year Dodgers left-hander who has emerged as not only one of the team’s best starters this season, but also one of the most productive pitchers in all of MLB.

“I don’t know if I would have envisioned having this lobby conversation for him to make an All-Star team in ‘26,” said manager Dave Roberts, who will also be the skipper for the NL team for the midseason showcase next Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park.

But, given what Wrobleski has done to this point, “I just think that he’s performed enough to earn that opportunity,” Roberts added.

That was true even before Wrobleski’s seven-inning, one-run start against the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday, a performance that further enhanced a resumé among the best in the sport this season.

He is now 10-2 in 16 outings with a 2.69 ERA, which ranks eighth-best among qualified pitchers in the National League (all seven in front of him received All-Star nods). 

He is averaging more than 6 1/3 innings per start since moving into the rotation during the second week of the season, and has completed at least seven full innings seven different times (tied for the fifth-most such starts in the majors this year).

“A year ago he was in the minors,” Roberts noted. “So to kind of look at himself in the mirror and really be honest and say, ‘How can I get better to be a major league pitcher?’ … That is really impressive for a young player.”

Wrobleski’s season has garnered him other recognitions. Roberts has repeatedly compared his preparation and focus to that of Clayton Kershaw. Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez gave him the nickname of “The Shark” –– which has caught on so much, Dodger Stadium organist Dieter Ruehle played the theme song from “Jaws” every time he walked off the mound Tuesday.

Alas, Wrobleski’s wait for a ticket to Philadelphia continues to drag on, with the 25-year-old describing his snub as both “disappointing” and “frustrating.”

“It’s just more reason to try and keep getting better,” he said. “Hopefully I can gain the respect of players and everybody else and maybe be in there next year.”

There is still time for circumstances to change this year, of course. In the coming days, more All-Star replacements will likely be needed as other players (pitchers especially) either opt out of the game or are rendered unavailable because of scheduling and workload considerations.

To that end, there is one factor working in Wrobleski’s favor: Unlike Wheeler, who has largely been bypassed since he’ll pitch this coming Sunday, Wrobleski isn’t scheduled to make another start before the first half ends, leaving him available to pitch in the All-Star Game and, therefore, more likely to be chosen as a potential substitute.

However, when MLB announced replacements for three NL pitchers on Tuesday afternoon, Wrobleski was not among the list of new selections.

At this point, all Wrobleski really wants is some clarity on the situation, joking he just “would like to know where my All-Star break’s gonna be” and that, “either way, I’m all good.”

In the meantime, Roberts’ hope is for his pitcher to internalize the indignation, and use it to keep fueling an unexpectedly breakout season.

“[To] use it as a kind of a fire, motivation, I think that’s that’s healthy,” Roberts said. “He has real compete, he has real belief in himself. And it’s not manufactured. I think it’s really authentic and who he is.”

For as good as Wrobleski was after first entering the Dodgers’ rotation –– pitching to contact, working deep into games, and limiting damage outside of a couple rough outings over his first couple months –– the southpaw has indeed found another level over the last six weeks that continued during his latest gem on Tuesday.

In seven starts since May 29, he has a 2.22 ERA. In that time, he has tapped into increased fastball velocity (from sitting in the lower-90s before, to routinely hitting 96-97 mph now) and nearly doubled his strikeout rate (he had 31 in his first 55 ⅔ innings this year, but 42 in his last 44 2/3 frames).

“I feel like I’m continuing to get better at knowing where to go with two strikes, knowing where to go versus a certain hitter with two strikes and just kind of reading the game,” Wrobleski said after following up an 11-strikeout performance against the Athletics last week with nine more against the Rockies.

Added Roberts: “The last handful starts, the [fastball] has ticked up to 97, the slider is a lot more sharp, and I think he is going for strikeouts when he has count leverage, as opposed to just putting the ball to play.”

Wrobleski’s All-Star candidacy does have some flaws. He only ranks 25th in MLB in FIP (an advanced metric that accounts more heavily for strikeouts than outs converted on balls put in play). He has only the 34th most innings pitched in the majors, as well, thanks to being in a six-man Dodgers rotation.

Roberts, however, remained adamant about his pitcher’s overall body of work.

“We run a six-man rotation, and I just don’t want him to get dinged for not making a couple more starts that he potentially could have had,” he said. “He’s won 10 games for us … The ERA is stellar.”

Whether or not it grants his All-Star dreams at the last second, only a little more time will tell.

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