Rosenthal: Fernando Tatis Jr.’s All-Star absence sends a message, plus other

I sort of hate that Fernando Tatis Jr. was not among the initial selections for the MLB All-Star Game. But I also sort of love it.

I hate it because Tatis is one of the best, most exciting players in the game, the kind of player the sport needs to showcase.

I love it because Tatis’ peers effectively penalized him for testing positive last season for a performance-enhancing substance in violation of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

The All-Star Game often is referred to as a fans’ game because the fans elect all of the starters except the pitchers. But the players’ participation in the voting process makes it a players’ game, too. And on Tatis, the players have spoken.

Tatis received an 80-game suspension that carried over into this season, delaying his 2023 debut until April 20. Entering Sunday, he still ranked sixth in the National League in the cumulative fWAR metric, despite missing the Padres’ first 20 games and playing right field regularly for the first time. Yet, the players elected the same three starters as the fans, Ronald Acuña Jr., Corbin Carroll and Mookie Betts, then snubbed Tatis in favor of Juan Soto, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Nick Castellanos for their reserves.

Acuña received 580 votes from the players, Carroll 473, Betts 467. Gurriel was next with 152, Castellanos with 148 and Soto with 147. The league does not release the vote totals of players who do not make the team. If a player-elected reserve position player must be replaced, the next in line on the player ballot becomes a reserve.

Wiggle room exists: The league can name a replacement at a different position for an injured or otherwise unavailable position player. But it’s difficult to imagine the league defying the apparent wishes of its players by trying to squeeze in Tatis.

Which is not to say Tatis is a pariah in the view of the league or even his union. The way both parties see it, once a player completes a suspension, he effectively has served his penalty and returns to the sport as a member in good standing. An All-Star vote, though, is a separate matter.

I’ll say it again: The baseball media, myself included, was too slow to report on the rise of performance-enhancing drugs in the 1990s and 2000s (and maybe even before). In the players’ parlance, we will always “wear” that, and should. But part of the problem in reporting on the subject was the code of silence that existed among players, even ones who were placed at a competitive disadvantage because their peers were cheating. It is still rare for a player to openly criticize a teammate or rival who is caught using PEDs. But when it comes to Tatis, I can picture players sitting at lockers filling out their ballots and thinking, “F— this guy.”

Is that right? Maybe not, considering Tatis’ performance. But players generally prefer to police themselves, both on and off the field.

A previous generation of players effectively rendered…