Tigers' ultimate underdog rewarded with the All-Star Game spot he deserved

When All-Star pitchers and reserves were announced, Tigers fans were disappointed to find that nobody other than Tarik Skubal, who was an obvious choice, had made the team despite Detroit's league-leading record. Skubal himself wasn't shy about calling out the powers that be for ignoring the rest of his squad, saying, "To be honest, I'm a little disappointed with only the four guys we got. I think there's a lot more deserving guys on our team."

In a frankly insane turn of events this season, the biggest snub wasn't Dillon Dingler, Spencer Torkelson, Casey Mize, Will Vest, or Tommy Kahnle (though arguments could be made for all of them). It was utilityman Zach McKinstry, who has floated between being mediocre and outright bad before this season.

This year, he's the Tigers' most valuable position player by both fWAR and bWAR, is batting .375 with a .957 OPS in high leverage. He leads the Tigers in triples, stolen bases, and batting average.

However, with injuries rife across the league, MLB had the opportunity to right a wrong, and they actually did it. With the Astros' Jeremy Peña out with a rib fracture, McKinstry will head to Atlanta as one of the AL's infield representatives.

Tigers' Zach McKinstry gets first career All-Star nod as a replacement for Astros' Jeremy Peña

It's a weird kind of vindication for Tigers fans, who never would've thought they'd be pulling for this guy in the way they've come to. But the question of where the Tigers would be this season without McKinstry is one that's been frequently asked, and without a hint of irony. On July 7, the day reserves were announced and McKinstry was initially excluded, he hit his seventh homer of the season in the Tigers' 5-1 victory over the Rays and made a great throw from right field to end the top of the third.

The Tigers now have five All-Star Game representatives, tied with the Dodgers for the most in baseball, but because Yoshinobu Yamamoto is ineligible to pitch in the game and has already been replaced by Andrew Abbott, the Tigers technically have more.

Fans can still be lightly salty that guys like Dingler, Tork, Mize, Vest, and Kahnle were overlooked, but McKinstry (and ball boy Frankie Boyd) deserved this first career nod. He's been one of many Tigers to unexpectedly thrive this season, but McKinstry is doing it better than any of them.